Hong Shao Rou - Red Pork

Well, Julia has left us. On Sunday morning she boarded a bus to take her to the airport. She'll be on the west coast for 7 days and then will return home to China. I have shed many tears over the last two days. I'm amazed at how attached I got to this stranger in just 3 short weeks. They seemed to go by in a blink. I had so much fun having her here, and even though there was a little extra work and extra driving, every minute was worth it. She was such a joy to have here, and I hope she had as much fun with us as we did with her.

Our last full day with Julia was a relaxing one. She and I again went to the Asian Market and got ingredients for dinner. She made Hong Shao Rou - or "Red Pork". It's basically a chinese barbeque pork, with a little more kick. Again, we had to sub some ingredients b/c of the gluten issue, but we were able to come up with alternatives that were just as good. So, although the dish is mostly a "chinese" dish, it was cooked in more of a South Korean method.

The recipe calls for a "glutenous" fermented rice drink. WE had to be a little careful on this one. Basically, it is a fermented sweet rice drink - the gluten is a RICE gluten, but there were a few that had malt added. You could always use rice milk and add about 2 or 3 tablespoons of sugar to make it sweeter.

Also, she used Pork Loin which ended up being a little dry in the end product. I would recommend using a pork butt instead since that cut lends itself better for braising - or get a whole loin and don't cut it until after it's braised in the cooking liquid for the allotted time. We purchased boneless loin chops and cut it into square. It was very tasty. We made Chinese French Fries to go with it - amazingly similar to american fries - basically deep fried potatoes, nothing extra! :D


Hong Shou Rou - Red Pork

1 1/2 Cup Water
2 Cups Fermented Glutenous Rice (don't let the name scare you) - SEE ABOVE NOTE
2 Tbs sugar (only add if you don't use rice milk as a sub for the FGR)
1/4 Cup Gluten Free Soy Sauce (We again, used San-J Wheat Free Tamari)
1/2 Cup Hot Bean Paste (I was wondering what we were going to do with that from last week!!!)
2 lbs Pork Loin - or another cut that lends itself to braising for a long time

Mix water, FGR (or rice milk and sugar), soy sauce, hot bean paste together and stir well. Bring to a boil. Add pork. Return to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to a very low simmer. Cook on low for 4 hours (you could also move to a slow cooker and cook on low for 4 hours).

There are two ways - we used pork loin chops and cut into 1" squares BEFORE COOKING. I think that if you did a whole loin roast and cut after the fact it would be a little juicier - or use a Boston Butt Cut and it would be more like a shredded pork.


SO YUM... :D