No-Simmer "Reckless" Lu Rou Fan: Saving Effort with Charred Onions and the Way You Cut the Meat

According to Ryuji's explanation, lu rou fan is a Taiwanese dish of braised meat served over rice, and at street stalls it is often simmered in a big pot and ladled over rice. It wasn't seen much in Japan in the past, but these days it is apparently sold even at convenience stores and the like. Traditionally it is made by thoroughly simmering pork belly, but Ryuji says they personally prefer loin.

Explaining the choice of loin this time, Ryuji said that pork belly "gets hard to handle at my age," and that wanting to make a lu rou fan with less fat was what prompted this episode. One of the staff members present also doesn't like pork belly, and Ryuji said they have lately often been cooking to suit that staff member's tastes, which has led them toward making things that aren't too greasy.

The ingredients are few: pork, onion, garlic, spinach as a side, and rice. Ryuji says pork shoulder loin is best. Shoulder loin, with its marbling of connective tissue running through it, is tender and very tasty, while other cuts turn out dry. If you don't have it, regular tonkatsu-cut loin is fine, and you can also use belly, but belly makes it quite rich. The quantities are for two servings: about 250g of pork loin, a generous amount at over 100g per person. Onion is 100g, and frozen spinach is fine.

Lu rou fan is sometimes made with ground meat, but according to Ryuji it is basically made with coarsely chopped meat cut by knife, because that gives it more substance. This is where the cutting method becomes the key point this time. Traditionally the meat is simmered until it breaks down into little chunks, but if you cut it small from the start, into roughly 1cm cubes, there's no need to simmer it. When a staff member reacted, "So that's what the simmering was for," Ryuji answered that it was.

You can use ground meat, but Ryuji thinks ground meat doesn't give you a meaty texture, so it's better to cut the meat to a size that keeps that texture. In the tasting scene as well, Ryuji said that using shoulder loin brings out the meatiness and makes it delicious.

Cooking begins by putting about 1 tablespoon of rice bran oil in a frying pan, adding the diced onion and garlic, and stir-frying over fairly high heat. Putting this on the heat before cutting the meat apparently saves time. The onion is cut to a size that will be easy to eat once it's on top of the rice.

The important thing here is to char it thoroughly. According to Ryuji, the authentic version uses fried onions, but households don't keep them on hand and they're a hassle to make, so this step fries the onions in oil to create that fried-onion aroma. Fried onions don't release their aroma unless they're quite charred, so you cook them deeply until they turn blackish in places. Even when staff said, "You really char it, huh," and "I think it's already burnt," Ryuji kept going: "Not yet," "A little more." Simmering afterward softens the charred quality into just the right fried character, so unless you go this far, the lu rou fan won't get its toasty aroma, Ryuji says. Compared with the work the meat would otherwise take, this alone makes it easy, and you don't have to buy fried onions, Ryuji emphasized.

Once it's charred, add the meat, stir-fry it lightly, and season with salt and pepper. The remaining steps are so short that you can start warming the rice at this point. When a staff member asked, "Isn't that fast if you're simmering it?", Ryuji answered, "I simmer it, but I don't simmer it," explaining that no elaborate simmering time is needed.

Add 120cc of water, then 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, and 1/2 tablespoon of sugar. Saying it tastes better with a little umami seasoning, Ryuji added 8 shakes of Ajinomoto. In Taiwan, umami seasoning is also used at street stalls and elsewhere, and in some cases it's indispensable, Ryuji says.

Here Ryuji slipped in a story about Ajinomoto. Ajinomoto's sales in Taiwan are large, and the company apparently has a factory there because it sells so well. Ryuji mentioned hearing that at Ajinomoto, people who rise in the company get sent to Taiwan, and joked that since things apparently sell when people work with Ryuji, the staff who worked with them end up on something like a fast track to promotion.

The dried chili peppers go in to simmer without being fried first. Ryuji likes things on the spicy side and added about 2, but even this much doesn't make it very hot, and since chilies themselves have umami, Ryuji thinks it's better with them. Black pepper also goes in "pretty generously, with a good grind."

If making a single serving, you can halve all the seasonings and the water, but since a single serving reduces faster, it's fine to use a little more water, Ryuji added. After that, you just reduce it and it's done.

As for spices, Ryuji says it's really best to have wuxiang fen (five-spice powder). It's commonly used in Taiwanese cuisine, but people either love it or hate it, so you can add it to taste; without it, the flavor still comes together well enough. Aroma is part of flavor, so adding it does bring you closer to the local version. Even about 2 shakes for two servings gives quite a bit of aroma, and Ryuji says 3 shakes is fine too. Adding it at the end has the advantage of letting each person adjust it to their liking.

During the taste test, opinions among those present were divided about the smell of five-spice powder. Ryuji said it brings a certain smell to mind and that some people dislike it, while one person present said they had never felt that way. In the later tasting, a staff member described it as close to "the smell of a massage parlor," saying there are shops with that kind of scent.

The reduced meat was thick and glossy even though no potato starch or anything similar had been added. As reasons for the thickness, Ryuji cited simmering the vegetables after charring them, and the fat and other things released from the pork reducing and emulsifying. Also, the reason it has that characteristic aroma despite using no spices is that charring the onion and garlic produces an oriental aroma, which Ryuji explained is a "technique for creating a spice-like aroma." It's only natural that something tastes good when you put in the effort, but as far as Ryuji knows, this is the method that gets quite close to the authentic dish with the least effort, Ryuji said.

Serve the rice and pile plenty of meat on top. In Taiwan a boiled egg is sometimes added, but since this is the "Reckless" version, Ryuji said you can skip it. Ryuji says rice soaked with the sauce is delicious. As a side, add frozen spinach warmed in the microwave. In the authentic version, leafy greens like komatsuna or bok choy are often served alongside, and just placing something green next to it gives it a lu rou fan feel, Ryuji says.

At the tasting, those present kept saying, "This is so good." One staff member had hardly ever made or eaten lu rou fan, and was surprised: "You can make this so easily?" Points raised included that it isn't very greasy because it uses loin, that the charred onion flavor comes through properly, and that the sauce is delicious.

Looking back on the sauce, Ryuji said that in the past they had added all sorts of things like Chinese soup stock, but that using just soy sauce, Ajinomoto, and oyster sauce actually tastes better. The tingling heat of the chilies was also well received, and Ryuji said that in the coming season, when it gets hot and soupy dishes become hard to face, appetite-boosting rice dishes like this would probably come in handy.

The staff member added 1 shake of five-spice powder and Ryuji a bit more, and the verdict was that it's plenty tasty added afterward too. Ryuji said, "Of the Reckless series, it's my favorite lately," and those present remarked, "You'd never know it was made in 15 minutes," and "It tastes like something properly simmered."

Ryuji noted that the ingredients don't cost much either, and that since you get both meat and vegetables, it's satisfying enough to serve as lunch or dinner with just a salad or soup on the side, and encouraged viewers to try making it.