Northern Chinese · Starter

Rou Jia Mo

Advanced
50 min
roughly 3 of 4 for cost

rich · sweet-edged · warm-spiced · aromatic Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a sweet edge rounding the corners, opening aromatic and staying there.

Ingredients

1 kg pork belly, skin on, cut in 5 cm pieces
3 L water
25 g rock sugar
30 g Shaoxing wine
40 g light soy sauce
30 g ginger, sliced
spice bag: 2 star anise, 3 g cassia bark, 4 bay leaves, 5 g fennel seed, 3 g huajiao, 2 cracked caoguo, 4 cloves
15 g salt
300 g plain wheat flour
165 g water at 30C (86F)
3 g instant yeast
3 g fine salt, for the dough
2 green chillies, finely minced
a small bunch of coriander, chopped

The skills inside

The bare simmer: holding liquid below the boil Resting dough: the pause that does the work The wobble & the skewer: testing a bake

The words inside

Fennel, Anise & the Licorice Line Braising & Stewing

Allergen screen

Found: gluten · soy · alcohol

Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.

Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.

Method

Start the belly in cold water, bring it to the boil and skim until the scum runs thin and white, then drain and rinse the pieces clean.
Return them to fresh water with rock sugar, wine, soy, ginger, salt and the spice bag, and hold at a bare simmer for 2 hours, until a chopstick slides through the skin without pressure and the fat wobbles. Leave the meat to cool in its liquid. 120 min
Mix 100 g of the flour with 65 g of the water and all the yeast into a soft sponge and leave it 60 minutes, until domed and webbed underneath, then knead it into the remaining flour, water and salt to make a firm dough and rest it 20 minutes. 60 min
Divide into six, roll each piece into a long rope, coil the rope flat like a snail and press it out to a 10 cm disc so the layers spiral inside.
Bake dry in a heavy pan over medium heat, 4 minutes a side, until tiger stripe scorch marks appear and the bun sounds hollow, then finish 6 minutes at 200C (390F) so the centre sets. 4 min
Chop the hot belly on the board, skin, fat and lean together, with a spoonful of the braising liquid, fold in chilli and coriander, split each bun through the equator without cutting it in two, and pack it while both are still steaming.

How to tell it is going right

This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.

Resting dough: the pause that does the work 71 recipes

It actually rested, covered, for the time stated, not cut short because the rest of the schedule was tight.
It rolls and shapes without fighting: it stays where it is put, and it does not spring back or shrink on the bench between passes.
The surface is smooth and supple rather than dry, cracked, or skinned over.
It is at the temperature the next step needs: cold where the fat must stay solid, cool and relaxed where it must be rolled thin.
Baked, it holds the dimensions it was shaped to rather than shrinking back from the edges of the tin or the rim of the dish.

Where it goes wrong The rest was skipped or shortened, so the gluten was still tight: the dough fought the pin and sprang back thick and uneven, then shrank down the sides of the tin in the oven.

The wobble & the skewer: testing a bake 135 recipes

Tested at the true centre and the thickest point, not at the convenient edge: the edge is done long before the answer is.
The skewer comes out as the recipe describes, clean and dry or carrying the stated moist crumb, and it does the same on a second test in a different spot.
The wobble is read in motion: nudged, the centre moves as one set mass with a faint tremble, rather than a liquid ripple travelling across the surface.
The other signs agree with the test: risen and just shrinking from the sides, the top set and dry to a light touch with no wet gloss on it.
Pressed lightly at the middle it springs back and leaves no lasting dent.

Where it goes wrong It was judged on the clock and on how the edges looked, so a centre still liquid went to the rack and sank as it cooled, a dense wet seam under a perfectly browned top.

At the Table

The Pour: Chenin Blanc (Vouvray sec)
Also Right: Cru Beaujolais
From the Taps: Farmhouse saison
Zero-Proof: Cloudy apple juice, chilled

Pork loves fruit and gentle sweetness: orchard-note whites and low-tannin reds flatter it where heavy oak flattens.

Family notes

Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.

Film school

This dish, cooked on camera Search films of Rou Jia Mo The cuisine, deeper Technique films from the Northern Chinese kitchen