Your ramen soup is not complete without tasty chashu. This tender piece of meat is seasoned with essential Japanese sauces.

Chashu tastes best when you prepare it one day before serving.

Preparation time: 180 minutes

Number of servings: 4

INGREDIENTS

• 1.5kg pork belly with rind
• 1 large garlic bulb
• 5 spring onions
• 5 slices of ginger
• 15g rock sugar

Sauce mix:

• 250ml Japanese Kyushu soy sauce
• 250ml water
• 200ml sake
• 150ml mirin

HOW TO MAKE IT

Wash the pork belly, dry it with a kitchen towel and remove excess fat if you prefer lean meat. Then roll up the pork belly tightly and tie it together with a rope.

Pour all the ingredients for the sauce mix in a large stewing pan, together with the spring onion, garlic, ginger and pieces of sugar. Carefully add the pork belly. Bring it to a boil and turn the heat to medium-low. Braise the pork for 3 hours until it has become tender and soft. Flip the meat from time to time so all sides of the meat is covered in sauce. Take out the meat and let it cool down, then slice it.

The meat tastes best the next day, the flavors will be absorbed well by then. Take out the meat and let the sauce cool down. Remove the solidified fat and pour the sauce together with the meat in a ziplock bag. Put the meat in the fridge for a couple of hours or one entire night.

You can keep the sauce to season the ramen soup or marinade the lava eggs.