I believe that food like good music and a good book is a solace to a person's soul. Food is both a science and an art - a yin-yang balance to your body and also an appreciation of colors, textures and sensory experience.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Gator Cooks - Braised Pork with Soya Sauce

Gator has been cooking and has been trying out some recipes with varying success. This post and the upcoming post are strictly non-halal.

The first dish - Braised pork with soya sauce is a typical dish served in many Malaysian and Singapore Chinese families. It is commonly known in Hokkien ( a Chinese dialect spoken in Malaysia and Singapore) as Tau Eu Bak. Tak Eu meaning dark soya sauce and bak as pork.

It is very simple recipe and the result is pretty good. I adapted my recipe from this Malaysian blog (http://kyspeaks.com/2011/03/06/ky-cooks-tau-eu-bak-braised-pork-belly-with-soya-sauce/)
The author of this blog is pretty hilarious.

The main ingredients are :
  • Pork belly
  • 8 dried mushroom - I left it to soak for about half an hour and cut away the stems
  • 1 or 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 10 cloves
  • 1 Teaspoon of 5 spice powder
  • 2-3 hardboiled eggs
  • 3 tablespoon of dark soya sauce
Gator first brown the pork belly with about 1.5 tablespoons of dark soya sauce on each side of the belly. And then Gator basically added all the ingredients (except the eggs) together with about 1litre of water. Try to add in enough water to just cover the pork belly, push the pork belly down with your ladle occasionally and basically simmer the liquid with the pork to a thick broth. You don't want too much liquid but also just enough gravy to eat it with steamed rice. Add the hard boiled eggs last. Finally, Gator "rest" and cool the pork for about 10-15 minutes before slicing it.

And now, some pictures..

The aftermath - after slicing the pork
A pile of pork
Sliced pork with all the codiments - suggest to remove all the spices before serving so that it looks more pleasing
Tucking in - what a gooey mess
This receipe is basically quite successful and its pretty authentic. Thanks to KY blog :) Warning: It does look very messy and sticky but its a great comfort food. It is also very important to select the right cut of the pork belly - with just enough fat. If the pork belly is too lean, it kinda defeats the overall purpose of this dish. And if there is too much fat, the dish will be way too oily and you will feel quesy after eating it.

End the meal with a nice pot of pu-erh tea.

1 comment:

  1. Looks awesome and appetizing. Even though, it's not exactly my type you know as I don't eat it. (: What camera did you use btw? Good quality!

    ReplyDelete