Lou Rou Fun (Taiwanese Minced Pork over rice)

1. On a heavy skillet, add 1 tbsp of cooking oil and the minced pork over high heat. Stir the pork gently and constantly for about 4 minutes or until the pork turns slightly brown. Make sure your skillet is hot enough so you don’t lose the juice from the meat.
2. Add broth/ water and mix in the five spice powder, star anise, bay leaf, soy sauce paste, dark soy sauce, cooking wine, black pepper, and sugar. Bring to boil and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
3. Grind the fried shallot with mortar and pestle into coarse powder.
4. Add fried shallot to the meat sauce after 30 mins of simmering. Add salt if necessary. Continue to simmer for another 20 minutes. Thicken the meat sauce with some corn starch.
5. Garnish with chopped scallion and serve the meat sauce over cooked rice or noodles or read of your choice.