This is a Japanese braised pork belly dish known as “Kakuni.” The tender pork and mix of sweet and savory easily makes it one of my favorite dishes, and I normally don’t even like pork! We usually serve the braised pork belly over a bed of rice with a side of sautéed greens and pair it with a soft-boiled egg (or sometimes a fried egg if I’m extra lazy). I made it with sautéed spinach in the picture below, but have done it with sautéed kale or onions too. Basically, I’ll use whatever veggies I have on hand!
I N G R E D I E N T S
3 green onions (we’ll use only the green parts)
1 inch ginger
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 lb. pork belly
1 cup water for cooking pork belly
4 boiled eggs
¼ cup sake
½ cup water
½ cup mirin
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup sugar
D I R E C T I O N S
1. We’ll only be using the green part of the green onion, so cut out the white part, then cut the green parts in half. Peel the ginger and slice it thinly.
2. Turn on the electric pressure cooker, and hit the saute function. Once it reads “Hot,” add 1 tbsp vegetable oil. Brown the pork belly.
3. Pour in a cup of water. Add the green onions and ginger.
4. Cover and lock the lid on the pressure cooker. Press the manual button and have it set to 35 minutes on high pressure.
5. Once it’s done, the pressure cooker will switch to “keep warm.” Do a quick release by releasing the pressure cooker valve.
6. Open the pressure cooker, and drain the water and get rid of the ginger and green onion pieces.
7. Put the pork belly back into the pressure cooker, along with the sake, water, mirin, soy sauce, and sugar.
8. Leave the lid off, and press the saute button to have the sauce reduce and thicken in the pot. This will create a nice glaze over the pork belly and intensify the flavors.
9. While the sauce is reducing, you can boil or fry an egg, and saute the greens.
10. Once everything is done, go ahead and assemble your bowl. A scoop of rice, topped with pork belly, paired with a side of greens and egg. Done!
pomegranate / 3768 posts
That picture is making my mouth water.
kiwi / 598 posts
This looks extremely delicious!!
guest
This looks delicious! Where do you find pork belly? I’ve only seen it once at Costco but then it disappeared!
cantaloupe / 6751 posts
That looks delicious! Do you have any tips on how we could cook this w/out a pressure cooker?
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
@pinkcupcake: If I were to make it without the pressure cooker, for steps 3-5, I would simmer on low on stovetop with the pot covered until the pork belly is cooked through. Then dump out the water/ginger/green onion (this step helps get rid of any porky smell).
After that you can follow the directions as is since you’re really just trying to reduce the sauce. So add pork back into pot, add the sake, water, mirin, soy sauce, and sugar… and boil on medium until sauce reduces. That’s it!
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
@Christina: My Costco and Sprouts have it, but I often get it from the Asian markets around here (I’m in SoCal so they’re pretty common).
guest
Do you need to cut the pork in chunks or strips before cooking or after?
guest
Made this tonight. It received rave reviews! I did chop up the pork after it was done and put it under the broiler to brown. The only negative was it was quite sweet. I used granulated sugar, maybe I should have used brown sugar loosely packed. I will try this next time. 5x