My partner loves to eat pig in all its forms. Be it a sausage, bacon, a ham joint, plain pork loin or even pork scratchings it all gets gobbled down. A favourite Sunday lunch of his when we were living in London would be roast pork with lots of pork crackling and all the trimmings; roast potatoes, stuffing, apple sauce, vegetables and gravy. Now that we have been in Asia awhile we noticed that pork belly is beloved here too but in the form of a dark, sweet and warming braised pork belly oozing unctuous fat and melting in the mouth. So as the saying goes- 'when in Rome....' I decided to give it a shot.
On making the braising liquid and having the delicious aromas of star anise, ginger & chilli wafting around the house I decided that it would be highly unjust if I did not get to sample this dish I had so lovingly prepared. I promptly made some more liquid and added whatever vegetarian ingredients I had to hand which turned out to be dried Shitake mushrooms, firm tofu and several eggs. Boy am I glad I did.
Below are the two recipes; the pork version and the vegetarian version (omit the egg and substitute large chunks of aubergine for a vegan version).
Soya sauce contains small amount of gluten and is therefore not suitable for gluten free. However Tamari, a japanese variety of soya sauce often doesn't contain wheat and is suitable for gluten free diets. Check the label to ensure it is wheat & gluten free.
You can make a double batch of the liquid which is the same for both dishes and then split it between two pans, one for each version to save time.
