Dear Chef Dai, I'm so pleased that you have honored my request to do a video on Buta No Kakuni! The result looks like ready to melt in the mouth. You spent quite a bit effort here to make it tender: three times boiling from cold water with rice and cold wash. I believe the step has a lot do w the end result being super tender. Exposing meat to heat and cold water effective makes the lean meat muscle strands lose ability to contract during cooking, hence less meat juice would be squeezed out. I think that's the key here to prevent the meat from drying out, aside form low heat simmering for the remaining of cooking (that's often done and on its own won't produce the desired result). This step in principle is similar to cook beef stew halfway then chill overnight and finish next day, to create a mouthful tenderness. I will definitely try your technique, to give Buta No Kakuni another lift. Your expression while tasting it is precious--That's what I look for when I serve something special to my family. Many thanks again!
You're more than welcome friend. I'm glad you liked the video. I would like to add the following points: 1) In the restaurant, I always run the pork under a cold running tap after bringing to the boil each time until the water turns clear. But this is obviously a waste of water and as such I left this step out of the video. For the home, I think rinsing with cold water would suffice. 2) Try to avoid boiling the meat as this will toughen it up, simmer only. 3) If you wanted an even more tender meat, add the soya sauce to the stock thirty minutes - 1 hour before eating as the soya sauce contains salt, which inevitably toughens the meat slightly. That said, the flavour of the stock will be less pronounced in the meat. I think the recipe in the video is my preferred method, a good compromise between flavour and texture. 4) This recipe is rather sweet and may not be to everyones taste. Please adjust the sugar to your taste. You seem to be really passionate about cooking. I really enjoyed reading your points btw. keep in touch matey. Your comments and observations will always be welcomed to this channel. Thanks again, I really enjoyed making this video
Dear Chef Dai, I just finished one large piece that I cooked today following your instructions closely. The method has worked very well, the lean meat part is fork tender and not stringy at all. The texture reminds me of another favorite, Chinese zhong-zi--lotus leaf wrapped rice containing chunk of meat. The repeated hot-cold cycles indeed help improving the product, even though it was a bit time consuming. I also found the rice technique helps to cut-down grease and cooking smell. That was a revelation. Iron Chef Morimoto also uses rice in his Buta No Kakuni, but in a different way: wegottaeat.com/Jess/recipes/morimotos-pork-kakuni. Making this dish makes me think quite a bit of each step, thanks to you, I've learned much. Happy cooking!
I accidentally found your website in the middle of the night tried to look for BBQ sauce recipe. I love your cooking style . Foods look delicious ! Make me hurry in the middle of the night. Love your clear voice and British accent. Thank you . I'm glad I found your website.
Thanks Jun, that's awesome! I would just like to add that this recipe is rather sweet, so please adjust the sugar and soy sauce accordingly. I sent you a PM a few weeks ago btw.
no problems Jun, just didn't want you to think that I was ignoring the question that you asked me before 😁 There seems to be something wrong with the PM system on youtube btw, I didn't get your message and other messages from other people in the past....weird 😞
lol, I cringed watching it. Particularly as I'm looking into the distance as I put the pork in my mouth! What was I looking at??!!??!!?? lol. Thanks for the comment friend!
oooff the way the meet was falling apart when you just spread it, amazing! looks very delicious and delicate! PS I sent you a pm regarding my visit to England!
arrr, thank you so much. That's really awesome. I'm glad you enjoyed the recipe. I would definitely adjust the sugar and soy if it was too sweet for you.
Mmm, this is by far my favorite japanese pork dish. Probably my best memory of japan is having this on a rainy night in Okinawa... :) Thank you for the great video Chef Dai, I'll definitely be making this whenever I can get a hold of some good pork belly. Quick question too, what kind of knives do you use? I use a set of Shun knives, but I was wondering what a professional japanese chef uses :)
Hi Eradon, hope you're well mate. Me too, it has to be one of my favourite pork dishes of all time. At home, I sometimes make a massive batch and then freeze the pork into portion sizes. And when I want some, I just defrost and re heat....... I've never been to Okinawa before, its one place that I've always wanted to visit. To be honest, my knives vary in price and quality. Some of them are cheap, some of them are expensive, some are really really expensive ......😁 I'm a big fan of German blades but most of mine are Japanese. I will make a knife video very soon...... Thanks as always Eradon!!!!!
Great job, Chef Dai. Question: What was the purpose of placing the kitchen paper over the stock? Also what did you use to tie the asparagus and carrots? It's so unique!
Thank you for your question! Depending on that amount of stock you want to get from the fish bones, I would first accumulate quite a few fish bones and heads as the more you have, the better flavour and umami you will get. I recommend freezes them each time and defrosting once you have enough. Chop the bones and head into smaller pieces , around 5-10 cm pieces. Bring a large pot of water to the boil and put all of the fish bones and heads inside. After a minute, drain and rinse with water any excess blood or scum off the bones. Next in a clean pot, put inside your bones and cover with water. From there need to cook in water on a simmer for at least a 4 hours....then you have the base for any good soup. I would add miso, light soy, sake and mirin for a cracking miso soup.
Cooking with Chef Dai Thank You for your answer! I was wondering how "real" fish goes with the recipe on your challenge, but thanks again for clearing it up.
Thank you so much. Yes the mustard is a necessity in my eyes, I love pork with mustard. Also this dish is sweet so compliments it well. I do have a technique in cooking kimchi but as I am Japanese, may be inferior to an authentic Korean recipe.
One would normally use a wooden lid called "otoshibuta" that would rest on the meat. The purpose of the wooden lid is to immerse the contents of the pot into the stock/sauce and subsequently cooking evenly and infusing the contents well. I would recommend using some kitchen towel or aluminium foil, then perhaps using a small light lid and resting it on top. A lid place on the pot itself will not allow the pork to take on the delicious flavours of the stock. Great question btw, thanks!!!
Thank you for your question Thung. I get asked many questions each day and although I am grateful for each every one of them, I also happen to work full time, so responding to messages promptly isn't always easy, so excuse me for not getting back to you sooner..... In answer to your question, I sometimes pour the broth over rice as with the vegetables. Perhaps, you could reuse the broth another time to make buta no kakuni, adding more dashi stock to dilute it back to its original taste. Maybe even use the leftover sauce as a base for soup or even ramen. Hope that helps.....
Thank you Chef, that was really helful. I did try using the left over broth for a new buta no kakuni with no added dashi and it did taste less flavorful than the first time. So I think if I want to re-use the broth I will need to add more dashi, also onion, ginger & celery as well to "restore" the flavors. Also I used a pressure cooker the for the second run of buta no kakuni, maybe it also part of the reason why the meat tasted less yummy than the first batch...Hmmm Your idea to use the leftover broth for a ramen is excellent !
theres no rules to say that you can't. But I would substitute the dashi with Kombu dashi rather than kombucha. kombu cha is salty and often diluted with hot water and served as a drink.
i made this and unfortunately it was too sweet. i should have added less sugar instead of the full amount the recipe dictated. also i simmered it for 3 hours on medium heat and it wasn't that soft... the meat was a bit tough and chewy. i'll see if i'll make this again in the future :/
great question. It submerges the pork under the stock so that it cooks it evenly and infuses the flavour. One would normally use a wooden lid called a "otoshibuta" but I don't have one at home
Chef: Pork belly is obviously a very far cut of meat. For those of us who prefer not to eat such a rich cut, do you recommend preparing this dish with something leaner, such as fillet, or would the essential flavor of the dish be lost?
Absolutely, I would thinly cut some pork loin and add that to the stock. Obviously it would not require the long and slow cooking process. Perhaps, pan fry the pork slices with salt and pepper. Add it to the stock and simmer for a few minutes.
IT LOOKS DELICIOUS! I cringed when you turned the pork with your hands. I would've burnt myself xD. 2 questions: What do you do with the stock? How about the vegetables?
Absolutely, as my good friend Tim mentioned. Also, you could add some water/cornflour mix to it whilst simmering to thicken it up, you could then pour it over the pork or rice. Or just pour it over rice as it is. You could keep the stock, freeze it then reuse it again to make this same dish, adding just the bonito stock to thin it out. You could use it again as is, just fry off some thinly sliced chicken beef, pork or even duck the add it to the sauce, simmer for 10 minutes. Thanks for the comment!
Dear Chef Dai,
I'm so pleased that you have honored my request to do a video on Buta No Kakuni! The result looks like ready to melt in the mouth. You spent quite a bit effort here to make it tender: three times boiling from cold water with rice and cold wash. I believe the step has a lot do w the end result being super tender. Exposing meat to heat and cold water effective makes the lean meat muscle strands lose ability to contract during cooking, hence less meat juice would be squeezed out. I think that's the key here to prevent the meat from drying out, aside form low heat simmering for the remaining of cooking (that's often done and on its own won't produce the desired result).
This step in principle is similar to cook beef stew halfway then chill overnight and finish next day, to create a mouthful tenderness. I will definitely try your technique, to give Buta No Kakuni another lift.
Your expression while tasting it is precious--That's what I look for when I serve something special to my family.
Many thanks again!
You're more than welcome friend. I'm glad you liked the video.
I would like to add the following points:
1) In the restaurant, I always run the pork under a cold running tap after bringing to the boil each time until the water turns clear. But this is obviously a waste of water and as such I left this step out of the video. For the home, I think rinsing with cold water would suffice.
2) Try to avoid boiling the meat as this will toughen it up, simmer only.
3) If you wanted an even more tender meat, add the soya sauce to the stock thirty minutes - 1 hour before eating as the soya sauce contains salt, which inevitably toughens the meat slightly. That said, the flavour of the stock will be less pronounced in the meat. I think the recipe in the video is my preferred method, a good compromise between flavour and texture.
4) This recipe is rather sweet and may not be to everyones taste. Please adjust the sugar to your taste.
You seem to be really passionate about cooking. I really enjoyed reading your points btw.
keep in touch matey. Your comments and observations will always be welcomed to this channel. Thanks again, I really enjoyed making this video
Dear Chef Dai,
I just finished one large piece that I cooked today following your instructions closely. The method has worked very well, the lean meat part is fork tender and not stringy at all. The texture reminds me of another favorite, Chinese zhong-zi--lotus leaf wrapped rice containing chunk of meat. The repeated hot-cold cycles indeed help improving the product, even though it was a bit
time consuming. I also found the rice technique helps to cut-down grease and cooking smell. That was a revelation.
Iron Chef Morimoto also uses rice in his Buta No Kakuni, but in a different way: wegottaeat.com/Jess/recipes/morimotos-pork-kakuni.
Making this dish makes me think quite a bit of each step, thanks to you, I've learned much.
Happy cooking!
4 years on, this still looks fantastic!
I accidentally found your website in the middle of the night tried to look for BBQ sauce recipe.
I love your cooking style . Foods look delicious ! Make me hurry in the middle of the night.
Love your clear voice and British accent.
Thank you . I'm glad I found your website.
Melts in the mouth...yum
Great video as always! I'm so making this. :)
Thanks Jun, that's awesome! I would just like to add that this recipe is rather sweet, so please adjust the sugar and soy sauce accordingly.
I sent you a PM a few weeks ago btw.
Thank you! I just replied! I've never used PM so I totally forgot that the function exsisted. lol
no problems Jun, just didn't want you to think that I was ignoring the question that you asked me before 😁
There seems to be something wrong with the PM system on youtube btw, I didn't get your message and other messages from other people in the past....weird 😞
instaBlaster...
Amazing, love the face you make when you first bite into the pork.
lol, I cringed watching it. Particularly as I'm looking into the distance as I put the pork in my mouth! What was I looking at??!!??!!?? lol.
Thanks for the comment friend!
Pretty sure you were having an intense spiritual experience eating that delicious pork!
lol, I think so. Or maybe it was just because I was extremely hungry ha ha
It looks so good. What can i use as a substitute for sake. Any non alocoholic product that can be used?
I really love pork belly. so delicious. You're such an amazing chef. Keep it up, Dai
Cheers as always mate, appreciate the comment!
I love pork belly too 🐷
Absolutely love it, thank you for sharing the recipe!
you really have that very very nice plating❤️❤️❤️
I made this last week! It was good! Thank you so much!
oooff the way the meet was falling apart when you just spread it, amazing! looks very delicious and delicate! PS I sent you a pm regarding my visit to England!
Thanks Radj, I haven't received any PM mate.
+Cooking with Chef Dai ow strange i have resend the message
very nice i will make this at home it seems like it is very delicious
Hey Arturo, cool name btw, "Arturo Gatti" is one of my all time favourite boxers!!!
Thanks for the kind comment, please try it at home friend.....
Looks yum. I do love a good bit of belly pork. I usually roast it but this looks goooood.
Cheers James. I hear you mate, my local pub does the best pork belly roast.......maybe I'll pop down there tomorrow for lunch 😁
what a lovely english japanese man
Thank you for this receipe. I did it for me and my mom this evening. We all was satisfied very much, even though i put sugar over dose XD
arrr, thank you so much. That's really awesome. I'm glad you enjoyed the recipe. I would definitely adjust the sugar and soy if it was too sweet for you.
Mmm, this is by far my favorite japanese pork dish. Probably my best memory of japan is having this on a rainy night in Okinawa... :) Thank you for the great video Chef Dai, I'll definitely be making this whenever I can get a hold of some good pork belly. Quick question too, what kind of knives do you use? I use a set of Shun knives, but I was wondering what a professional japanese chef uses :)
Hi Eradon, hope you're well mate.
Me too, it has to be one of my favourite pork dishes of all time. At home, I sometimes make a massive batch and then freeze the pork into portion sizes. And when I want some, I just defrost and re heat.......
I've never been to Okinawa before, its one place that I've always wanted to visit.
To be honest, my knives vary in price and quality. Some of them are cheap, some of them are expensive, some are really really expensive ......😁
I'm a big fan of German blades but most of mine are Japanese. I will make a knife video very soon......
Thanks as always Eradon!!!!!
amazing as always! keep up the good work!
Cheers for the support Jonny!!!!
Oh man I'm salivating!!!!!
Great job, Chef Dai. Question: What was the purpose of placing the kitchen paper over the stock? Also what did you use to tie the asparagus and carrots? It's so unique!
So that the meat is totally immersed into the stock. Looks like thin spring onion to tie them.
It's tied with chives.
The towel is used so that the whole meat is submerged and that it takes on the fat and scum.
MrMoofeez Tim Srumpf Thanks for the replies!
+MrMoofeez Wrong. The paper towel is to Take away any excess fat from the pork belly.
Could you please do a video cooking チャーシュー? I ilke it in the ramen.
I LOVE chashu too. I will definitely upload a recipe in the near future, thanks for the request!
Your hands are so beautiful-is that weird to say? 🤔 anyways this looks fantastic, will definitely try out this recipe! Looks so simple and delicious
In your fileting videos, you always talked about using the bones and head for stock, but could you explain how you do that?
You literally just put them in a large pot and the bones and head in water (or add some herbs if you want) to make a stock
Thank you for your question! Depending on that amount of stock you want to get from the fish bones, I would first accumulate quite a few fish bones and heads as the more you have, the better flavour and umami you will get. I recommend freezes them each time and defrosting once you have enough. Chop the bones and head into smaller pieces , around 5-10 cm pieces. Bring a large pot of water to the boil and put all of the fish bones and heads inside. After a minute, drain and rinse with water any excess blood or scum off the bones. Next in a clean pot, put inside your bones and cover with water. From there need to cook in water on a simmer for at least a 4 hours....then you have the base for any good soup. I would add miso, light soy, sake and mirin for a cracking miso soup.
Cooking with Chef Dai
Thank You for your answer! I was wondering how "real" fish goes with the recipe on your challenge, but thanks again for clearing it up.
Please come back chef! We miss you!!!
I will make this this week, this is mouthwatering. What's the yellow sauce?! And do you have a own way to make kimchi?
mustard sorry
Thank you so much. Yes the mustard is a necessity in my eyes, I love pork with mustard. Also this dish is sweet so compliments it well.
I do have a technique in cooking kimchi but as I am Japanese, may be inferior to an authentic Korean recipe.
Can I substitute and use kombu tsuyu? If so how much?
Thank you!
That looks amazing chef! But I'm just wondering can a lid replace the kitchen towel?
One would normally use a wooden lid called "otoshibuta" that would rest on the meat. The purpose of the wooden lid is to immerse the contents of the pot into the stock/sauce and subsequently cooking evenly and infusing the contents well.
I would recommend using some kitchen towel or aluminium foil, then perhaps using a small light lid and resting it on top. A lid place on the pot itself will not allow the pork to take on the delicious flavours of the stock.
Great question btw, thanks!!!
Hey dai, great video as always,I was wondering if you could add daikon to this dish?
Hey Pete, absolutely mate. Daikon would make a great addition.
what is the use of rice in that two times boiling processes?
great dish♥♥♥
thanks friend!
Is there any way to make use of the final left-over pork broth with all of the aromatic flavors from the dashi, ginger, onion, carrot & celery ?
hello?
Thank you for your question Thung. I get asked many questions each day and although I am grateful for each every one of them, I also happen to work full time, so responding to messages promptly isn't always easy, so excuse me for not getting back to you sooner.....
In answer to your question, I sometimes pour the broth over rice as with the vegetables. Perhaps, you could reuse the broth another time to make buta no kakuni, adding more dashi stock to dilute it back to its original taste. Maybe even use the leftover sauce as a base for soup or even ramen. Hope that helps.....
Thank you Chef, that was really helful. I did try using the left over broth for a new buta no kakuni with no added dashi and it did taste less flavorful than the first time. So I think if I want to re-use the broth I will need to add more dashi, also onion, ginger & celery as well to "restore" the flavors. Also I used a pressure cooker the for the second run of buta no kakuni, maybe it also part of the reason why the meat tasted less yummy than the first batch...Hmmm
Your idea to use the leftover broth for a ramen is excellent !
I want to know How You cook sea cucumber.
I don't eat pork, but that looks tasty
that's a great compliment, thank you!
will you make any new dishes that are really crunchi?
have you seen the tonkatsu and chicken katsu videos that I posted on this channel?
yea they were great! i just can't get enough of crunchy food :3
lol, me too.
I will try my best to make something crunchy for you!
this looks so delicius mhh dai!
btw. ur quallity is amazing
YO TIMOOOOO!!!!!
Thanks buddy, hope all is well with you.
+Cooking with Chef Dai ahh Dai i like u verry much.
hello from the other side from the eu ;D
You're too kind Timo.
#brexitshock 😔
That looks so moreish I am now hungry but how about that skin?
so hungry after watching this 😂😂
as soon as the pork goes into his mouth, he kinda seeing something in the future.
lol, someone said when they see me eat, it looks like I've just seen a ghost...
is it possible to substitute dashi stock with kombucha?
theres no rules to say that you can't. But I would substitute the dashi with Kombu dashi rather than kombucha. kombu cha is salty and often diluted with hot water and served as a drink.
Seems kind of a waste throwing away the rice used in the boiling process. Are there any ways you could re-use the rice Chef?
when he was breaking the pork with the chopstick,... lol,.... nsfw there,... cant wait to try this,...
the culinary ninja strikes again. mark my words, you'll have 500K subs one day. prob many many more.
Thanks buddy! The success of this channel is down to the support from you guys. We have the greatest subscribers on UA-cam!!!
More GRAPHICS video please
i made this and unfortunately it was too sweet. i should have added less sugar instead of the full amount the recipe dictated. also i simmered it for 3 hours on medium heat and it wasn't that soft... the meat was a bit tough and chewy. i'll see if i'll make this again in the future :/
holy mother of god
Not chop ginger it's slice ginger🤔
👏👍
😊🙏
+Daisuke Ikeda 😂
why put the tissue paper in?
great question.
It submerges the pork under the stock so that it cooks it evenly and infuses the flavour. One would normally use a wooden lid called a "otoshibuta" but I don't have one at home
I’m not sure about the paper towel, that has some chemicals to it so I will not be cooking with that, otherwise the pork looks delish!!!! ✌️✌️
u know we have invented tongs right
This recipe is good but why the hell did you remove the skin from the pork? It is the fucking main thing which makes this dish delicious.
Chef: Pork belly is obviously a very far cut of meat. For those of us who prefer not to eat such a rich cut, do you recommend preparing this dish with something leaner, such as fillet, or would the essential flavor of the dish be lost?
Absolutely, I would thinly cut some pork loin and add that to the stock. Obviously it would not require the long and slow cooking process. Perhaps, pan fry the pork slices with salt and pepper. Add it to the stock and simmer for a few minutes.
lol no dai recipe is complete without mustard
haha, you know me to well Nivan....you know me to well!
Delish!!but that shirt need to go!
so unhealthy
why is it unhealthy?
IT LOOKS DELICIOUS! I cringed when you turned the pork with your hands. I would've burnt myself xD. 2 questions: What do you do with the stock? How about the vegetables?
You can use the stock for ramen :) Or cook it so long that it reduces to a sauce and you have something resembling a teriyaki sauce :)
Absolutely, as my good friend Tim mentioned.
Also, you could add some water/cornflour mix to it whilst simmering to thicken it up, you could then pour it over the pork or rice. Or just pour it over rice as it is. You could keep the stock, freeze it then reuse it again to make this same dish, adding just the bonito stock to thin it out.
You could use it again as is, just fry off some thinly sliced chicken beef, pork or even duck the add it to the sauce, simmer for 10 minutes.
Thanks for the comment!