Dongpo Pork Recipe

I haven’t cooked this dish, called Dongpo, pork for a really long time. Dongpo pork is one of the first dishes I ever cooked for Chris and to this day it’s one of his favourites. I remember just after we married I cooked this dish a lot and really spoiled him.
But sadly we ate this dish too many times (literally every few days for a few weeks) and we got a bit tired of it, so it’s really nice for both of us to come back to it and eat it again. Every bite of this meat is so amazingly tasty and if cooked right the pork will literally melt in your mouth.
Dongpo is the name of a great and famous writer in Chinese history. Su Dongpo was a great writer, poet, artist, calligrapher, pharmacologist and statesman of the Song Dynasty. He loved not just writing but also food.
There are many different versions of stories for this pork dish but I will only introduce the version of the story I like in my blog today. This pork dish was created when Su Dongpo worked and lived in Huang Zhou. One day he decide to make stewed pork and one of his old friend suddenly visited him during cooking. He challenged Su Dongpo to a game of Chinese chess and Su Dongpo had totally forgotten he had a pork stew on the stove. He found out he had this stewed pork cooking on his stove until the end of the game and the amazing fragrant smell from his kitchen reminded him of it. He tasted the pork with his friends and shockingly found out how wonderful taste of this dish is. This is how Dongpo’s pork been created. It’s a wonderful accident.
Here is my recipe for this Dongpo’s Pork and I hope you will enjoy this dish with your family and friends.
Credit: These photos were taken by Chris at Chris Radley Photography

Dongpo Pork
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 500 g pork belly cut into 5cm squares
- 2 thin slices ginger
- 2 spring onions cut into 3cm lengthways
- 4 cloves garlic remove the skin
- 1 star anise
- 5 cm cinnamon stick
- 1 slice dried liquorice
- 1 slice dried tangerine skin
Seasonings
- 3 tbsp crystal sugar available in Chinese supermarkets but you can use brown sugar
- 2 cups Shaoxing rice wine
- 1 cup light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
Instructions
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Use the string to tie the pork up like a parcel and blanch the pork in the boiling water with another couple thin slices of ginger. After just rinsing under cold water and leave it on aside.
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Heat a tablespoon of oil in the wok and sauté the spring onion, ginger, garlic first and add all the spice into the wok and keep sauté it until the fragrant smell comes out.
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Place the step 2 into a small stock pot and re-heat the wok from step 2 again with a little bit of oil.
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Add crystal sugar into the wok and stir it until the crystal sugar caramelized and add soy sauce and a bit of water to boil it.
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Place pork into the stock pot from step 2 and make sure the pork is on top of the spring onion, ginger and garlic.
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Add the sauce from step 4 into that stock pot and make sure the sauce have to cover over the pork and add Shaoxing rice wine.
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Cook the pork in strongest gas power and after it boiling turn the gas power to the lowest and simmer it for a couple hours and it’s ready to serve.
I love the beautiful presentation of the pork and thanks for sharing the story its origin. Another one to add to my food stories memory bank 🙂
Hello Emily,
Thank you for the comment and I’m glad my Dongpo’s pork can be part of your food stories memory bank lol.
Hi Liv
I can see why this was your husbands favorites…it sound like such a great dish….your presentation is wonderful and your pictures are outstanding..
thanks so much for sharing
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
Thank you for the comment and I really appreciate.
Have a nice day!!
That looks so good. I like the glaze you used.
The glaze is really easy to make.
1. Pass the sauce that cook with Dongpo’s meat into the other sauce pan and reduce down a little bit.
2. Mix 1 teaspoon of potato starch or corn starch with a little bit of water and stir it into the sauce after 30 seconds, turn off the fire and that’s the glaze that I used for this dish.
Please don’t buy anything called “Chinese glaze” or something similar in the supermarket i
Hi Liv,
Another mouth watering dish you share with us, you are spoiling us:) Sounds so amazingly good! I really enjoyed the story too, makes you wonder how many other foods were born this way. Beautiful photos too!
Hi Nancy,
Thank you for your comment. We are even as your blog always makes my mouth water. I love the stories behind the food that we eat and how it was created.
Your shot is amazing! It looks super delicious.
Hi Linn,
Thank you very much for your comment.
My husband helped me with the photo shoot as he is a professional photographer. I’m glad that you like our work and hope you can visit my blog again in the future
I love pork already and you just made it even more appetizing by presenting it this way. I’m not surprised that this was so popular on Foodbuzz. Great job!
This looks and sounds so great, No wonder your husband loves it. I will have to give it a try.
Congrats, Liv! It’s wonderful to see your dish on the Top 9! 🙂 This looks absolutely fabulous!
Hi Judy,
Thank you very much for your comment. I’m glad to make the top 9. It’s a such honor to me and thank for all the people who visit my blog.
That looks like it could be served in a fancy smancy restaurant!
Hi Rick,
Thank you for your comment. Maybe I will served this dish in my restaurant in the future if I ever own one lol.
Wonderful ingredients and lovely presentation! No wonder your hubby loves it.
Hi Roti,
Thank you very much for your comment.
I meant to congratulate you on the top 9. This dish certainly deserve it, Liv!
Pork belly is my favorite! Yours looks so scrumptious! I’m craving pork belly as looking at it. Great photo!!!
This looks delicious. Your photos are amazing 🙂
Hi Courtney,
Many thanks for the comment. I’m really appreciate it.
真的是amazing!!
怎麼會如此的晶瑩剔透呀~
是蛋先生愛的東坡肉耶~
雖然我不愛吃~總覺得肥滋滋的~
但你做出來的造型太可愛了~
如果是小玩具可以收藏一下喔!
哈!謝謝妳來看我的blog!!就是因為蛋先生之前吃太多東坡肉所以才會那麼胖呀!!!
在准备雅思口语素材的时候,发现了你的blog,很棒的英文和故事。谢谢,很喜欢。
謝謝Sherry. 🙂