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Before I being this post, I would like to give a huge shout out to Nami over @justonecookbook. I don’t know her, never met her, but I do know that she has helped my cooking evolve immensely. When I started cooking over 20 years ago (was about 15 years old), the only dishes I knew were the ones that my mom made. My mom was/is an excellent cook, but she usually cooked her ‘own’ dishes (some of which are mind-blowingly delicious and I will post the recipes for in the near future). So when it came to more traditional Japanese dishes, she didn’t really know how to cook them. I looked for recipes to cook these traditional dishes, but most everything I found didn’t turn out very well. So it was about 4-5 years ago that I had stumbled on her site. All of her recipes are in English, in imperial measurements and for the most part, straightforward and delicious! So if you are interested in making some traditional Japanese dish, definitely check her out!
Now, coming back to our version of Braised Pork Belly, I simplified a couple of things and of course, made it keto! However please note that this dish does take a very long time to make. It isn’t hard, just takes a while. So please provide yourself around 3 hours to create this dish. I assure you though, the end results will be a melting block of meat that sets off flavors like Pop Rocks!
This dish is as keto as you can get – around 0.7g of carbs per bite. So feel free to indulge in this one! Tasting note would be a melting block of sweet, savory pork rounded out by a hint of ginger.
For this dish, you will need Swerve/Monkfruit, bonito flakes and Soy Sauce. All of which can be purchased on Amazon or a local Asian supermarket (aside from Swerve).
Now, let’s get started!
Prepping Time 15M
Cook Time 2H45M
Total Time 3H
Net Carb/Serv ~1g
Servings 8-10 pieces
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lb Slice of Pork Belly (the Costco one is about 10″ in length)
- 2 Inch of Ginger
- 4 Cups of Water
- 1 Cup of Bonito Flakes
- 2-4 Hard Boiled Eggs (link on how to make easy peel hard boiled eggs)
- 1/3 Cup Swerve/Monkfruit
- 5 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 Cup of Vodka
Directions
1) Gather all the ingredients (I know it is wasteful to use ‘Grey Goose’ for cooking…but that was all we happened to have).
2) Fill stove top pot with enough water to completely submerge entire pork belly. Bring to boil.
3) Cut 1 1/2 inch of ginger into thick slices. Set aside along with leftover 1/2 inch of ginger.
4) Once boiling, add pork belly. Let it boil for 1 minute and discard water. Fill up the same pot with water and bring back to a boil (this step is to clean the initial taste/smell of the pork). Once boiling, reduce to low/simmer heat, add sliced ginger from step 3), cover and cook for 1 hour.
5) In the meantime, add 4 cups of water into a stove top pot and place a strainer inside. Inside strainer, add bonito flakes and bring to boil. Once the water comes to a boil, reduce heat to simmer.
6) Take the remaining 1/2 inch ginger and cut julienne. Set aside.
7) Place eggs inside stove top pot and fill with enough water to completely submerge eggs. Directions to cook hard boiled eggs can be found here.
8) Remove strainer from stove top pot and set aside. Discard bonito flakes. You now have ‘umami’ dashi, the not so secret ingredient to Japanese cuisines.
9) After 1 hour has passed for step 4), transfer to a cutting board. Cut into 1/2 inch bite size width. 1 slice of pork belly should yield around 8-10 pieces.
10) Bring dashi from step 10) back to boil. Once boiling, reduce to low-simmer, add pork belly, vodka, Swerve/Monkfruit, hard-boiled eggs and ONLY 2 TBSP of soy sauce (if you do not add soy sauce in increments, it will be overly salty). Mix well, cover and cook for an additional hour. Check water level periodically and add water to keep pork and eggs covered.
11) After an hour has passed, add another 2 tbsp of soy sauce and cover. Cook for an additional 30 minutes.
12) After 30 minutes have passed, add the last tbsp of soy sauce and cook for 15 additional minutes.
13) After 15 minutes, pork should have a nice soft glaze. Pull from stove top pot and plate.
14) Add a couple of pieces of julienned ginger from step 7).
Awesome! You just made a dish that really doesn’t have any carbs but tastes like…a melt in your mouth protein candy!! If you are looking for other great low-carb/keto meal recipes to get you through the week, be sure to check out our Recipe Index with over 100+ Asian inspired low-carb/keto recipes!
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Braised Pork Belly
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lb Slice of Pork Belly (the Costco one is about 10" in length)
- 2 Inch Ginger
- 4 Cups Water
- 1 Cup Bonito Flakes
- 4 Eggs Hard Boiled Eggs
- 1/3 Cup Swerve or Monkfruit
- 5 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 Cup Vodka
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Fill stove top pot with enough water to completely submerge entire pork belly. Bring to boil.
- Cut 1 1/2 inch of ginger into thick slices. Set aside along with leftover 1/2 inch of ginger.
- Once boiling, add pork belly. Let it boil for 1 minute and discard water. Fill up the same pot with water and bring back to a boil (this step is to clean the initial taste/smell of the pork). Once boiling, reduce to low/simmer heat, add sliced ginger from step 3), cover and cook for 1 hour.
- In the meantime, add 4 cups of water into a stove top pot and place a strainer inside. Inside strainer, add bonito flakes and bring to boil. Once the water comes to a boil, reduce heat to simmer.
- Take the remaining 1/2 inch ginger and cut julienne. Set aside.
- Place eggs inside stove top pot and fill with enough water to completely submerge eggs. Directions to cook hard boiled eggs can be found here.
- Remove strainer from stove top pot and set aside. Discard bonito flakes. You now have ‘umami' dashi, the not so secret ingredient to Japanese cuisines.
- After 1 hour has passed for step 4), transfer to a cutting board. Cut into 1/2 inch bite size width. 1 slice of pork belly should yield around 8-10 pieces.
- Bring dashi from step 10) back to boil. Once boiling, reduce to low-simmer, add pork belly, vodka, swerve/monkfruit, hard-boiled eggs and ONLY 2 TBSP of soy sauce (if you do not add soy sauce in increments, it will be overly salty). Mix well, cover and cook for an additional hour. Check water level periodically and add water to keep pork and eggs covered.
- After an hour has passed, add another 2 tbsp of soy sauce and cover. Cook for an additional 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes have passed, add the last tbsp of soy sauce and cook for 15 additional minutes.
- After 15 minutes, pork should have a nice soft glaze. Pull from stove top pot and plate.
- Add a couple of pieces of julienned ginger from step 7).
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