3 Feb 2024
JETAA News
27th February 2021
Buta no Kakuni
Recipe from Rob Gorton
Buta-no-kakuni (requires a pressure cooker ideally...)
This is a bit of a long recipe so I tend to make it at celebrations in winter - new years particularly!
It's great served with white rice, a little english mustard and maybe sprinkled with chopped green onions
1) Take a large, single, boned and skinned pork belly portion. Thick, fatty pork belly is best
2) Chop it in to squares, larger than you think you'll want (they'll reduce significantly in size)
3) Brown the pork in oil, in batches so that you can move them round the pan, over a very high heat. It helps to add a splash of oil at the start of each batch so they don't stick.
4) Return all of the pork to the pan. Cover with water, a good amount of sliced ginger (10cm) and the green parts of four spring onions per kilo of pork
5) Pressure cook for 45 minutes (If you have no pressure cooker, around 2 hours at a low bubble
6) Release the pressure, discard the ginger and spring onings
7) Add per kilo of pork: half cup each of water, soy sauce, sake and mirin, and a quarter cup of sugar
8) Pressure cook for 30 minutes (or 1.5 hours at a simmer if you don't have a pressure cooker)
9) Remove the pork and set aside. Boil the sauce to reduce, then add back the pork