How to make braised pork belly with white radish and bean paste in a clay pot

I love dishes where you can just throw all the ingredients into a pot and let them simmer. Yes, I know that browning meats before you stew or braise them gives the dish deeper flavour, but it can be messy because of all the oil splatters. This dish has plenty of flavour because of the garlic, ginger and bean paste or chilli bean paste.

I cook the ingredients in a stove-to-table Chinese clay pot (also called a sand pot) or another earthenware pot, which makes for a rustic presentation. Enamelled cast-iron pots, such as those by Le Creuset or Staub, also work. The pot should hold about two litres.

Braised pork belly with white radish and bean paste or chilli bean paste

You can vary the flavour of this dish by using different Asian bean pastes or chilli bean pastes, such as miso, doubanjiang, doenjang or gochugaru. If you use bean paste without chillies, make sure it’s not the sweetened type meant for desserts.

You can also add other types of vegetables in place of the white radish (loh bok or daikon). Try fresh bamboo shoots (peeled, sliced, boiled in lightly salted water for about five minutes, then drained), lotus root (thoroughly rinsed of mud, then peeled and sliced into half moons) or water chestnuts (peeled, rinsed thoroughly, then quartered).

Add these ingredients to the pot at the point when you would add the white radish. And if you like a stronger garlic flavour, slice or mince some of the garlic cloves, instead of leaving them all whole.

I like to flavour the pork with a lot of ginger. Cut the rhizome into strips about the same size as the white radish so that the pieces look almost the same when cooked. The simmered ginger is delicious because the long cooking time gives it a subtler flavour.