Chinese Braised Pork Trotters (Hong Shao Zhu Ti)

Place the trotters in a large pot and cover with cold water. Add the ginger slices and spring onion knot. Bring to a rolling boil, then blanch for 8–10 minutes, skimming away all grey foam that rises. Drain, discard the aromatics, and rinse each piece under cold running water. The water should run clear and the meat surface should appear clean and pale.

Heat the oil in a wide, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Working in batches if necessary, place the blanched trotters skin-side down and brown briefly, turning once, until the skin is golden and carries some colour on its surface. The smell should shift from neutral to distinctly roasted-pork.

Return all trotters to the pot. Add the Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and rock sugar. Pour in water to barely cover. Bring to the boil, then reduce to the gentlest possible simmer — a bare tremor at the surface. Cover and braise for a minimum of 2 hours, turning the pieces once midway. At the end of this period, a chopstick or skewer should pass through the thickest skin with no resistance, and the gelatin should feel slack and yielding to the touch. This is where the dish lives or dies: insufficient braising leaves the collagen unconverted and the skin irretrievably chewy; it cannot be corrected later.

Remove the lid and raise the heat to medium. Reduce the braising liquid, turning the trotters frequently to coat them in the thickening sauce, until only a small quantity of deeply coloured, viscous liquid remains in the pot. The sauce must coat the back of a spoon thickly and cling to the trotter skin in heavy, sticky sheets — a thin sauce is an unfinished dish.

Transfer to a warmed serving dish. Spoon all remaining sauce over the trotters. The surface should gleam with a lacquer-like gloss and the skin should quiver when the plate is gently shaken.