Five Spice Pork / Lu3 Ro4 Fan4 [滷肉飯]

This is one of my favorite Taiwanese meals (滷肉飯).  Usually it takes hours to simmer, but I’ve got it down to less than an hour. Just make a pot of rice (or if you have a Zojirushi rice cooker, just set it for when you get home from work), make this.. and viola- Taiwanese dinner!

Prep time: 5-10 min
Cook time: 30-50min
Servings: 4 (or in my case 2 with leftovers)

Ingredients:

1 lb ground pork
1 med yellow onion
3-4 cloves diced garlic
2 tbsp sweet potato starch (healthier alternative to corn starch)
3tbsp cup sesame oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup cooking rice wine
2-3 tbsp 5 spice powder (五香粉）
1 cup hot water
rock candy (~1 med sized piece), or ~1tbsp sugar cane sugar
3-4 eggs, hard boiled

Directions

1. Defrost the ground pork and put in a large bowl. Add ~ 3tbsp soy sauce, ~ 3tbsp wine, 3tbsp sesame oil, and starch. Mix well and let sit ~5min to marinate a little.

1a. Boil water and make hard boiled eggs. Peel and poke 4-5 holes in each egg with toothpick. Wait to add eggs.

2. Dice the garlic and onion. Add ~ 4tbsp oil to the skillet on med heat and add the garlic. Cook ~2 min and then add onions. Cook another 3-5 min until browned.

3. Add the pork and cook thoroughly. Use the spatula to break up the pork. After browned, drain the oil.

4. Then add the 5 spice powder and mix. Add remaining rice wine, soy sauce and water. Add eggs. Cover and cook on high heat until it boils, then lower heat to a small boil/simmer for ~40-50min. The pork should be soft, and eggs browned. Taste the pork, if there is not enough flavoring, add more soy sauce and 5 spice until you achieve your desired flavor. I tend to add extra 5 spice powder.

5. Serve over rice and enjoy! I usually separately cook some vegetables to eat with the meal. Sometimes I’ll buy 酸菜 (Suan1 Cai4, or sour vegetable) or Pickled Mustard Greens (雪裡紅) or xuělǐhóng from the asian market to serve with the meat.