On one end of the spectrum of Chinese cuisine, we have the crisp, fresh, quickly-cooked stir-fries with which we’re all familiar. On the other end, we have red cooking. This method of braising in soy sauce and rock sugar produces deeply savory dishes with a rich mahogany hue - a feast for the eyes as well as the mouth.
Properly called hong shao, red cooking is a specialty of Shanghai. The soy sauce produced in this city and surrounding areas is particularly excellent and red cooking shows off its quality.
Meats like duck and pork belly are probably the most common kinds of red-cooked dishes, but fish and tofu can also be used. The soy sauce thickens during cooking while the sugar caramelizes, producing an almost glaze-like sauce. Aromatics like ginger, star anise, and citrus peel are added to the braising liquid for even more depth of flavor in both the sauce and the food being cooked.
If you’ve been wanting to try your hand at Chinese cooking, this method is a good place to start. Braising is an easy and familiar technique, and the ingredients used in red-cooking are easy to find in almost any super market. It’s also a hard technique to do wrong. No matter what, you’ll end up with something tasty!
Take a look at these recipes:
• Red-Cooked Pork Belly (Hong Shao Rou) from Saveur
• Red-Cooked Chicken with Shiitakes from Epicurious
• Red-Cooked Beef Short Ribs from Serious Eats
• Red-Cooked Tofu from Fine Cooking
Have you ever made a red-cooked dish at home?
Related: Crockpot Meals: How to Braise in a Slow Cooker
(Image: Flickr member FotoosVanRobin licensed under Creative Commons)
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When I was in college, doing my stint in Asian Kitchens, we did a dish called "red cooked pork". It was my favorite!!! The smell of soy and star anise, I love. I make it every fall.
Don't laugh but I've been using Coca Cola in my Red cooked dishes--
I love Hugh Carpenters Red Cooked Chicken wings and Ken Oringer has a terrific one for red cooked pork Belly also with Coke......
http://www.ming.com/foodandwine/recipes/simply-ming-season-7/ken-oringers-lacquered-pork-belly-with-preserved-lemon-soy-sake-glaze.htm
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/01/braised-red-cooked-wings-recipe.html
A trick I learned about giving stir fried anything a "shiny" appearance is to add a pinch of flour mixed with a little water...
omg these look like what I was trying to do when I made my mom's chinese short ribs but these look restaurant worthy. Next time I make this i'm going to add a touch of that preserved dried orange peel to brighten the dish a bit.