How would you like to cook up some sweet and succulent braised pork (kakuni)… while watching a movie? Well, there’s a recipe that actually lets you do that, and it’s recently been a huge hit online inJapan due to its unique and surprisingly effective instructions.
But what could a pork dish and the epic blockbuster movie Titanic have in common? We think you’ll get the idea once you see the instructions in the recipe.
The tweet above showing a picture of the recipe in question has now been retweeted over 16,000 times, and not only did it make us laugh, it actually made us want to do some cooking as well.
The picture doesn’t show the entire recipe, but we were able to find the complete version on a cooking blog written by the recipe’s creator, Yuri Yamamoto. It’s slightly different from the version in the picture, but we’re going to share the complete recipe from the blog with you so that you can recreate the dish if you’re in the mood for tender, savory Japanese-style braised pork
Recipe for Japanese-style braised pork à la Titanic
Ingredients:
– 500g (1.1lb) pork belly (block)
– 1 Tbsp rice
– Japanese green onions (just the green part from one stalk)
– 200cc (6.8oz) shochu
– 3 Tbsp soy sauce
– 2 Tbsp sugar
– 1 Tbsp mirin (sweet cooking rice wine)
Method:
1. Set Titanic video (Part 1) ready.
2. Put pork in a large pot and add water until immersed.
3. Add the green onion and rice to the pot and start heating.
4. Once the water starts to boil, set the heat to low and start the video.
5. Use baking paper or aluminum foil to create a lid and place directly on top of the meat and water.
6. Add water to the pot when you come to the scene where Jack is spitting and fooling around.
7. Add more water when Rose is going crazy dancing.
8. Again add more water when Jack is sketching Rose nude.
9. Turn off the heat when the ship starts sinking and Part 1 ends (about two and a half hours).
10. Cut the pork into 3-4 pieces and keep about 400cc (13.6oz) of the stock from boiling the pork.
11. Wash the pot, add the shochu, then heat and let simmer for about three minutes.
12. Add the soy sauce, sugar, mirin and pork stock and heat.
(There may be rice floating in the stock so you may want to pour it through a strainer.)
13. Start Part 2 of Titanic.
14. Once the pot is boiling, put the pork back in, cover directly with a lid again and heat on low.
15. Turn the pork over several times while heating.
16. The pork will be done by the time the upper-class passengers are boarding the lifeboats (about one hour).
How does that sound? It does take more than three hours, but the process doesn’t seem too complicated, does it? In fact, it makes us feel like we could make this ourselves if we wanted to. All we have to do now is go out and buy a nice piece of pork belly and a Titanic video set, and we’ll be ready to sail!
By the way, if you’re going to try the recipe, be careful not to get too caught up in the movie, since according to Yuri Yamamoto’s comment on her blog, if you forget to turn off the heat, the pork will likely be burnt to a crisp by the time you see Rose blowing desperately on her whistle. Happy cooking and movie watching!
Source: Twitter@miyako1015 (Japanese), Syunkon blog by Yuri Yamamoto (Japanese)
Top Titanic image: AMAZON JP
Photo of recipe tweet: Twitter@miyako1015
Photo of braised pork: Syunkon blog by Yuri Yamamoto