Japanese dinner followup

I was so happy with dinner the other day. I almost cried. I’m making some notes here so that I can quietly reminisce at a later date… and also so that I can easily recreate these dishes.

The braised pork belly turned out better than I ever dared to dream. I took some photos with my mobile phone while it was cooking (but I neglected to take any when it was on the dining room table).

I first browned the meat and covered it in caramelised sugar:

Then I added water, a length of leek, a knob of ginger, a star anise, cooking sake, and soy sauce:

Three hours later and it looked (and smelled) delectable:

Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of any other dishes (which were cooked later in the evening; I was much more concerned with eating at that stage). Although I do have a (bad) photo of the menu/guide I put together for the meal:

Finally, a list of recipe changes compared to my original post:

• Buta no Kakuni: Pretty much exactly as described over at Just Hungry, but I’d remove the meat while caramelising the sugar and then add a little more water.
• Nasu Dengaku: I went with a simpler recipe which was very close to what I wanted, but with a little too much sugar. Next time I’d try making the paste from equal parts miso, mirin, sake, and sugar. I’d also slice the eggplant a little thinner so that it cooks through evenly.
• Ginger salad dressing: I’ll go easy on the sesame oil next time. It has a pretty overpowering flavour.

Good times. 😀