Rou-zao is something distinctly and unmistakably Taiwanese. If you’ve never been to Taiwan or don’t have a personal connection to it, you probably won’t give it much thought. But for those tied to it by heritage or nostalgic memories, it hits deep—bringing tears of joy. It’s that kind of food.

Serves: 10-15 people

Preparation: 20 minutes

Cooking: 3:30 minutes

Skill Level: EASY

Ingredients

• 1.25 kg skin-on pork belly, cut into ½ cm cubes (see Note)
• 6 small red Asian shallots, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tbsp raw sugar
• 125 ml (½ cup) soy sauce, plus extra for adjusting
• 60 ml (¼ cup) Chinese rice wine (shaoxing) or sake
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 2 tsp molasses
• 1 tsp ground white pepper, plus extra, to serve
• ¼ tsp Chinese five-spice
• 100 g (1½ cups) fried Asian shallots (you-cong)
• 750 ml (3 cups) water
• 6 large hard-boiled eggs, peeled
• steamed rice, to serve

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 150ºC.
2. Heat an ovenproof casserole pot over a medium-high heat on the stove. Add the pork belly, red Asian shallots, garlic and sugar. Turn the heat down to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8–10 minutes or until the pork fat starts to render and the sugar starts to caramelise on the base of the casserole or the surface of the pork belly.
3. Add the soy sauce, rice wine, cinnamon stick, molasses, ground white pepper and five-spice, and cook, stirring, until there’s good caramelisation on the side and base of the casserole and the liquid is almost evaporated. Add the fried shallots and stir to combine, then immediately (fried shallots easily burn) add the water and bring to a simmer. A lot of pork fat will float to the surface; skim off half and reserve (this dish should have a good amount of fat in it, but leaving too much will make it difficult to judge the water level when the sauce is reducing. Reserving the fat allows you to adjust later).
4. At this point, adjust the seasoning with more soy sauce. Each brand of soy sauce has a different saltiness, but chances are you’ll need 30–60 ml more. Poke a few holes in the hard-boiled eggs with a fork to allow the flavours to penetrate, then add to the casserole.
5. Return to a simmer, put the lid on and move into the oven. Cook for 2½–3 hours or until the pork belly is meltingly soft, and the liquid is slightly reduced and becoming gelatinous (if the liquid is reducing too fast during cooking, add a bit more water). You should have about ½ cm pork fat at the surface; if there’s more, skim off.
6. Spoon the pork belly mixture generously over hot steamed rice, with a little sprinkle of ground white pepper to serve. Otherwise, once cool, the pork belly mixture can be divided into airtight containers and frozen until needed.

Serves: 4 people

Preparation:10 minutes

Cooking: 5 minutes

Skill Level: EASY

Ingredients

• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 large carrot, julienned or ribboned with a peeler
• Sea salt and black pepper
• ½ lemon
• Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• 3 tsp (15 ml) olive oil
• 6 lamb leg steaks, about 1.5 cm thick
• 1 tsp ras el hanout
• 4 flatbreads
• 300 g tub hummus
• 80 g bag wild rocket
• Good pinch of smoked paprika

Steps

1. Heat a large frying pan and a griddle pan over a high heat.
2. Put the sliced onion and carrot into a bowl with a squeeze of lemon juice, some seasoning and a glug of extra-virgin olive oil and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, pour the tablespoon of olive oil into a frying pan and place over a high heat. Season the lamb with the ras el hanout and salt and pepper and sear for 2 minutes on each side until just cooked but still slightly pink in the middle.
4. Drizzle the flatbreads with olive oil and place on the griddle pan until warmed through and lined with char marks.
5. Spread each flatbread with hummus and scatter with the rocket leaves and carrot. Slice the lamb thinly and put it on top of each flatbread. Scatter with the pickled onions and paprika and drizzle with a little more extra-virgin olive oil.

Serves: 4 people

Preparation: 35 minutes

Cooking: 1 hour

Skill Level: MID

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg (3 lb 5 oz) free-range chicken
• 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) white onions
• 10 lemons
• 2 tablespoons red nokoss (see recipe)
• 2 tablespoons mustard
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 40 ml (1¼ fl oz) olive oil
• 1 bouquet garni
• White rice, for serving
• Marination Time: Overnight (For best flavor, marinate the chicken the day before cooking.)

Steps

1. Rinse the chicken thoroughly, pat it dry, and cut it into pieces. Peel and finely chop the onions. Grate the zest of the lemons and extract their juice.
2. In a bowl, combine two-thirds of the red nokoss with the mustard and lemon zest. Use this mixture to generously coat the chicken pieces. Pour over half the lemon juice (set aside the remaining juice for later), and mix in the chopped onion. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate overnight to marinate.
3. When ready to cook, remove the chicken from the marinade, separating it from the onions (keep the marinade for later use).
4. In a large frying pan, heat half the olive oil and brown the chicken pieces on both sides, working in batches if needed. Once browned, set the chicken aside.
5. In the same pan, add the remaining olive oil and cook the onions gently over medium heat for about 15 minutes until softened.
6. Add the reserved lemon juice, the remaining red nokoss, the bouquet garni, and the marinade. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.
7. Return the chicken to the pan, pour in 250 ml (1 cup) of water, cover, and let it simmer on medium heat for another 15 minutes.
8. Serve hot, arranged on a large platter with white rice on the side.