Rou Zao Fan (Easy Lu Rou Fan)

• 1-2 Tablespoons vegetable oil Or as needed. Preferably shallot oil from cooking the fried shallots or pork lard
• 1½ lb ground pork if you have a butcher, ask him to grind up some fatty pork for you. The fat melts into the oil, to create a sticky sauce that's ever-so-delicious. If you can only get pre-minced pork, with no control over the fat levels, don't stress, just use a bit more oil or, even better, pork lard. (But do not use lean meat!)

For the sauce

• 1½ Cups water This is the total amount of water added INCLUDING the mushroom soaking water. i.e.If you end up with 1 Cup of mushroom soaking water, you only need to add another ½Cup of water here.
• 2 Tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Shaoxing wine If you don't have it, here are some Chinese rice wine substitutes
• 1 Tablespoon dark soy sauce some Rou Zan Fan recipes only use light soy sauce, but the resulting dish will not look very attractive as it won't have the beautiful dark brown color that dark soy sauce brings. If you can't get it, here are some dark soy sauce substitutes.
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar rock sugar is usually used. It gives the dish a more glossy appearance. However, rock sugar needs to be pounded down into smaller pieces which would increase the cooking time. And since we're going for a quick and easy recipe, I've tried the recipe with both brown sugar (preferred- brown sugar is an iconic Taiwanese ingredient) and white sugar and they taste great both ways. 
• 2-3 teaspoons Chinese 5-spice powder I prefer homemade 5-spice- click through for the recipe- but shop bought works too. Don't be too heavy handed, if not your sauce will have a powdery taste. If your 5 spice is old and not so fragrant, add more whole spices rather than more powder.
• 2-3 star anise Don't use broken up star anise, if not you'll have problems finding them after cooking (and may bite on them accidentally.)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns or to taste. adding whole Sichuan peppercorns really lifts the flavor of the sauce!
• 1-2 teaspoons ground white pepper or to taste. the taste is strong and it clumps easily, so add bit by bit, to taste and mix well
• 3 dried shiitake mushrooms Soaked in hot water for at least 30 minutes before cooking. Add the mushroom soaking water to the sauce. Optional but the dried mushrooms do add umami to the sauce. Add whole or, if slicing, squeeze out the water before slicing.
• 3 hard-boiled eggs optional

Garnish & Sides

• ⅓ Cup fried shallots or to taste. Although homemade tastes best, to make this a quick recipe, buy fried shallots from Amazon or the Asian market! (To make your own, you'll also need a neutral flavoured vegetable oil (not olive oil) to fry the shallots. Strain the crispy shallots, and use the leftover shallot oil to cook the pork!)
• spring onions