Red-stewing

Red-stewing, or red-cooking or red-braising, is a traditional Chinese cooking technique, more often in the home than restaurants. For home use, it offers the advantages of fuel-efficient low heat, the ability to tenderize tough cuts of meat, and not needing constant attention. Restaurants, however, may start with more tender cuts of meat, and may not appreciate the amount of shrinkage in pieces of meat. Red-cooked pork belly is said to have been the favorite dish of the Chinese leader Mao Zedong and it is now a regular dish in restaurants in the region of his birthplace in Hunan.

In Western terms, it is a form of brining and simmering. The liquid used for red-stewing has distinctly Asian ingredients, and is often "refreshed" and used for long periods of time. Some restaurants that specialize in red-stewing boast that their "master sauce" was started decades, or centuries ago.

Master sauce

Using ingredients reasonably available in the West, the major components, in roughly equal proportions, are;

• Light soy sauce
• Dark soy, molasses, or brown sugar (or a combination)
• Sherry or rice wine
• Water
• Yellow rock sugar is also used in some recipes

The key flavorings, with estimates for an 8-quart pot, are:

• Fresh ginger, typically slices that have been slightly crushed with the flat side of a cleaver; from an 1-2 inch cube of ginger
• Star anise, perhaps 10-12 whole pieces per batch
• Dried orange or tangerine rind, 4 square inches, broken up; do not substitute fresh citrus zest
• Chopped green onions, one bunch

Dried mushrooms can be both an ingredient and a flavoring. Garlic is sometimes added, and becomes sweet with long cooking.

For specific dishes, additional seasonings, such as Szechuan peppercorns, may be very useful, but have a sufficiently distinctive flavor that the liquid may not be reusable for more general cooking.

Refreshing

"Refreshing" is by taste more than anything else. The ingredients most likely to need replenishment are the wine, ginger, and green onion; since the long simmering concentrates the flavoring, it may only be necessary to add more water rather than more soy.

By reusing the master sauce, it also acquires food flavors. A proverb is that an ancient master sauce is suffused by the spirits of the animals cooked in it. While a master sauce, given the amount of salt it contains, keeps well, it needs either to be kept constantly heated and refreshed, or refrigerated.

Red-stewed dishes

Cubes of meat are the most basic ingredients, which can stew for hours. They will become tender; if the cooking continues, the meat becomes salted and can be air-dried. Cubes of dry red-stewed beef are sometimes wrapped as snacks.

Dried mushrooms take up the stock very well, although, like chicken, they will break down if cooked as long as meat. Slices of daikon radish, stewed until tender, are called "gold coins" in dishes, as they do tend to take on a golden color.

Red-stewed dishes can be eaten simply, on rice. Since the meat is of a uniform dark color, flavorful garnishes of freshly chopped green onion, lemon slices, or any of a variety of radishes add interest to the presentation.

The meat also can become an ingredient. A technique derived from Mongolian and Korean cooking is to put pieces of red-stewed meat into a dry, very hot pan, until some surfaces acquire a brown to black crust. At that point, wine or a light stock can be added to the pan, and snow peas and other vegetables, with a distinct texture quickly stir-fried with the meat.