Rafute

Skin-on belly simmered in spirit and raw sugar until the skin itself is the thing you eat.

Pork, Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish, pork.

Ingredients

• 1 kg pork belly, skin on, in one piece
• 200 ml awamori
• 60 g black sugar
• 80 ml soy sauce
• 600 ml bonito stock
• 4 slices ginger
• 1 leek, in lengths
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon karashi

Method

1. SKIN ON AND THE SKIN IS THE POINT. The kakuni on this site is cut into cubes and simmered in dashi, mirin and sake until the fat yields; this keeps the belly in one piece with the rind attached, and after two hours that rind is translucent and gelatinous. Cubed, it cannot do that.
2. SINGE AND SCRAPE THE SKIN FIRST, over a flame, then scrape with the back of a knife and rinse. Bristles do not soften in two hours of simmering.
3. AWAMORI, NOT SAKE, and a great deal of it. The Okinawan spirit is far stronger than cooking sake and cuts the fat in a way mirin cannot; a shochu will stand in, sake will not.
4. BLACK SUGAR, NOT WHITE OR MIRIN. Unrefined cane sugar carries a molasses bitterness that is half the flavour, and white sugar makes it merely sweet.
5. Boil the whole piece in plain water 10 minutes, then throw that water away and rinse. It takes out the scum that would otherwise cloud the braise.
6. Back in the pot with the stock, awamori, ginger, leek and salt -- NO SOY AND NO SUGAR YET. Salt and sugar early tighten the meat and it never gets soft.
7. Simmer very gently, barely bubbling, 90 minutes, turning once. A rolling boil breaks the skin away from the fat.
8. Soy and black sugar in, then another 30 to 40 minutes uncovered, basting, until the liquid is syrupy and the skin glossy.
9. A skewer should pass through the rind with no resistance at all. If it catches, it needs longer -- there is no shortcut.
10. Rest off the heat 20 minutes, then slice 2 cm thick across the layers so every piece has skin, fat and meat. Karashi on the side.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes