Claypot Pork Belly

If you ask me what my favourite meat is, my answer is pork.

This is kind of predictable because I’m Asian and for some reason or another all Asians like eating pork. It's like in our blood or something.
 
There is a Cantonese saying that goes “giving birth to a slab of char siu would have been better”. Parents say this to their children when expressing their disappointment in them. It roughly translates to and means – “if I had char siu at least I could eat it, but you, your useless.” 

But why char siu? 

Char siu is one of many famous Chinese BBQ meats that you’ll see hanging out the front of Hong Kong style BBQ restaurant windows. There is also roast duck aka siu ngaap or soy sauce chicken aka see yu gai. So why would people say that they would rather give birth to char siu and not siu ngaap or see yu gai? 

I asked my parents if they knew where this saying originated from and they didn’t know. I had grown up hearing this saying, I’d often hear it on Cantonese TV shows and movies in family dramas. I then asked my parents why pork and not duck or chicken. It didn’t take us long to figure out why you would want to say “giving birth to a slab of char siu would have been better” and not siu ngaap or see see yu gai because duck is slang for a male prostitute in Cantonese and chicken is what you call a female prostitute… why? I don’t know, but don’t ever say out loud you are calling chicken or duck in Cantonese, it could get awkward.

This makes me think of the time when I was in Japan with my friends Karen and Crispin in 2010 and we were at an izakaya with some of Karen’s Japanese friends. We let the locals order and they asked us what we felt like eating which was met with “I’m easy, order whatever you like”. Karen’s Japanese friends asked what we meant by “I’m easy” and we explained to them that it means we will accept anything that they order. So they started repeating out loud “I’m easy” like it was some cool new English saying they had just learnt and then we realized that they should be careful with saying I’m easy because as with calling chicken or duck in Cantonese, it could get misconstrued and get awkward!

“giving birth to a slab of char siu would have been better”

Well this isn’t char siu, I already have a recipe for char siu on my blog which happens to be my most popular blog post but this is one of my other favourite pork dishes – claypot pork belly. 

This is the kind of dish I love eating in winter. Pork. Fat. What else do I need to keep me warm?

Enjoy :)

Claypot Pork Belly

(An original recipe by the Blue Apocalypse)
 
Ingredients

•    peanut oil
•    1 kg pork belly, thinly sliced
•    4-5 slices of ginger
•    2 shallots, sliced
•    3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
•    3 stalks spring onion, cut into 2 inch lengths (I only use the bottom third)
•    10-12 dried red chillies (soaked in hot water until soft and deseeded)
•    3 tablespoons oyster sauce
•    4 teaspoons dark soy sauce
•    2 teaspoons light soy sauce
•    1 ½ cup chicken stock
•    2-3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
•    1-2 teaspoons sesame oil
•    salt and sugar
 
Method

Heat 2-3 tablespoons of peanut oil in a wok and fry the dried red chillies until the oil is coloured red and the chillies are crispy. Then add in the ginger slices and fry together until fragrant.
 
Add in the shallots, garlic and fry until the shallots have softened
 
Add in the sliced pork belly and fry until it starts to brown. Then add in oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and fry everything together so that the pork is coated with the sauce. Deglaze with Shaoxing wine and then add in the chicken stock.
 
Heat up a claypot and transfer the pork from the wok to the claypot. Bring to boil, cover with lid and simmer for 1-1 ½ hours until the pork is tender and the sauce has thickened. 

Stir occasionally and add more water or stock if the sauce dries up.
 
Add the spring onions, cook for a further 5 minutes and season to taste with a little salt and sugar. Add in the sesame oil last and mix together just before serving.
Serve with steamed rice.

Here are some of my other pork belly recipes:

• Braised pork spare ribs with pumpkin
• Vietnamese braised pork belly with eggs in coconut juice (Thit Heo Kho Trung)
• Twice cooked pork (Sichuan style)
• Roasted pork belly - sui yuk
• Kakuni (Japanese Braised Pork)
• Braised pork belly with daikon
• Chinese BBQ Pork 
• Communist Pork (Red Cooked Pork)
• Baki Kecap (Indonesian braised pork in sweet soy sauce)

Pork Apocalypse

Over the past few months, there have been a lot of disturbing reports of humans eating other humans (check: Florida, Canada, Brazil  Russia, China).  Are these just a series of coincidences or telltale signs of the looming apocalypse on 21.12.2012?

What do humans taste like? I’m sure this question has crossed the minds of all of us at one time or another. This question will be high on the radar when the apocalypse occurs and it gets to the point where there is nothing left to eat but each other…

According to robots, humans taste like bacon. Researchers at NEC System technologies and Mie University designed a robotic gastronomist capable of identifying wines, cheeses, meats and hors d’oeuvres. When a hand was placed under the robots jaw it was identified as “bacon”!

Many cannibals consider the taste of human flesh to be similar to pork. One of the world’s most famous cannibals is Armin Meiwes from Germany. He achieved international notoriety for killing and eating a voluntary victim whom he had found via the Internet. In an interview from his prison cell, Meiwes says - "The flesh tastes like pork, a little bit more bitter, stronger. It tastes quite good.". Other German cannibals, Karl Denke and Fritz Haarmann, killed people and sold their flesh at the markets as pork. 

Interestingly, Germans eat a lot of pork. Actually, pork is the most popular meat consumed in the world with 85 billion tons consumed annually, a third more than beef or chicken.

You know the saying “you are what you eat”… well if we eat a lot of pork, does this mean that we would taste like one too?

Still not convinced by this human = pork hypothesis?

Earlier this year I went to Penguin Island for a picnic. When you are on an island, Lord of the Flies will inevitably come up in conversation, and so will cannibalism. I confess that I was the one guilty of starting the cannibalism conversation. In the car ride to Safety Bay with my friends Karen and Nicola, we were telling each other what we had been up to and I told them that I had been reading a lot about cannibalism, the apocalypse and trying to come up with a pork inspired dish (this is nothing out of the ordinary right, isn’t this what most people do in their spare time?!). So the Lord of the Flies comes up in conversation at the picnic and Nicola mentions that we were talking about cannibalism in the car. As the resident cannibalism expert of the group, I proceed to tell people that we taste like pork. Another person reaffirmed this by telling us that he has a friend who works as a nurse at a hospital and he was told that when surgery is conducted, instead of a scalpel, some laser ray device is used and when it cuts through human flesh, it smells good hmmm… kind of like pork…

There are also many similarities between humans and pigs.

•    Pigs are often used for dissection in biology labs due to the similarity between their organs and human organs. The internal organs of humans and pigs are alike not only in size, but also in physiology, so that insulin made from a pig’s pancreas can be used by humans for diabetes. There is also a lot research and trials been done at the moment on breeding genetically engineered pigs for the purpose of harvesting their organs for transplant into humans.

•    Pigs are highly intelligent and ranked fourth in animal intelligence behind chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants. They have great cognitive abilities, good memories, form social groups and exhibit similar behaviours to humans. For example, pigs are very clean animals, they are the only farm animals that make a separate sleeping den (which they keep spotless) and use a latrine area. Pigs can also be housetrained, taught to fetch, do tricks and play video games with a joy stick.

•    Have you ever noticed how the skin of pigs appears quite similar to humans? Some tattooists even use pig skin to practice on. (WARNING: You may find the following images disturbing, link to photos of pigs getting tattooed, click at your own risk here or here)

•    In Christopher Hitchen’s book God Is Not Great, he claims that one of the reasons why religions such as Judaism and Islam don’t eat pork is because pigs are too much like humans. Quote: “The simultaneous attraction and repulsion derived from an anthropomorphic root: the look of the pig, and the taste of the pig, and the dying yells of the pig, and the evident intelligence of the pig, were too uncomfortably reminiscent of the human (p 40).”

•    George Orwell was considered a visionary. His classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four provided some hauntingly accurate predictions of the future. Specifically, the intrusion of government into the everyday life of its citizens, with many concepts such as Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime and newspeak often used to describe the current state of affairs. Is it a coincidence that George Orwell likened humans to animals in his novel Animal Farm and made the pigs run the farm? As the years pass in Animal Farm, the pigs become more humanised, they learn to walk upright, carry whips and wear clothes. During a poker match, an argument breaks out between Napoleon and Mr Pilkington when they both play the Ace of Spades, and the animals realise that the faces of the pigs look like the faces of humans and no one can tell the difference between them. Maybe the works of Orwell do not only propel us to question authority but also to question whether or not we are pigs?...

Did you know that the term “long pork” is code for human flesh? I wasn’t aware of this until my friend told me that during the Soviet famine in the 1930s, situations of desperation, scarcity of food lead to people eat their fellow human beings and sell human flesh on the market as long pork in order to survive. Sounds like it could be our future after 21.12.2012? (Note: this came up in conversation because I was telling my friend that I was planning a series of apocalypse inspired dishes this year and brainstorming ideas). With this in mind, over the past few weeks I slowly came up with the concept for a pork inspired apocalypse dish.

So here I present my second apocalypse inspired dish – it’s a “Pork Apocalypse”. Don’t worry I have not cooked any humans. I’ve done a literal interpretation of long pork by slow roasting a stuffed rolled loin of pork. A slice of the pork is set on top of apple sauce with a camp fire cooking bacon, in desolate surroundings with the shrubbery of deep fried Brussels sprouts.

 My first apocalypse inspired dish was a "Mushroom Apocalypse on a Dessert". 

(My long pork - a long piece of pork loin, stuffed, rolled up and roasted until tender with crispy, crackling skin) 

(A new revelation for me - deep fried Brussels sprouts! The first time I have cooked them this way and it was delicious.)

How to cook a Pork Apocalypse

Rolled Roast Pork
•    ~2kg of boneless pork loin with skin (you want a good amount of fat/rind for crackling) and enough belly flap to wrap around the meat and make a roll, trimmed
•    2 teaspoons fennel seeds, toasted
•    olive oil
•    lots of salt
Stuffing for pork
•    75g rocket, roughly chopped
•    40g pine nuts, light toasted in the oven for 2-3 minutes and roughly chopped in processor
•    50-60g parmesan, grated
•    50g breadcrumbs
•    25g parsley, roughly chopped
•    1 small shallot, diced
•    1-2 cloves garlic, minced
•    1 egg, lightly beaten
•    ½ - 1 tablespoon thyme
•    some salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste

Preheat the oven to 220C.

Take pork out of refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before cooking.
Combine all the stuffing ingredients together well in a bowl.

Pat dry the pork skin with paper towels and score the skin using a sharp knife at 5mm intervals in a criss-cross pattern but take care not to go through to the flesh (this allows the fat from underneath to bubble up, crisping the skin as it does so).

Turn the pork over, skin side down and pack the stuffing into the pork cavity. Roll pork up to enclose stuffing and tie meat at 2cm intervals with cooking string to secure.

Rub a little olive oil over the skin of the pork (I find that this helps the salt to stick onto the skin) and sprinkle liberally with salt (rubbing it in), fennel and allspice just before you put it in the oven.

Place in a large, heavy-based roasting pan (you can elevate the pork on a roasting rack to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan and so that it cooks evenly because the heat surrounds it). Roast the pork at 220C for 30 minutes, then reduce temperature to 180°C and roast for a further 100 minutes (25 minutes for every 500g). Cook until the pork reaches an internal temperature of ~72-74C.

Remove from oven and cover with foil and let it rest for 10 minutes before carving. This allows the juices to settle, which helps keep the meat tender and moist. Cooked pork’s internal temperature will rise 3-8C after cooking and during resting so avoid overcooking.

Remove the string, brush off the excess salt and carve into slices, each with a crisp layer of crackling.

Apple Sauce
•    20g butter
•    20g caster sugar
•    4 granny smith apples, peeled and diced
•    1 cinnamon stick
•    1 star anise
•    1 teaspoon mixed spices
•    ½ tablespoon lemon juice
•    salt to taste

In a thick based saucepan, melt butter and stir in the sugar until it dissolves. Leave to cook until it becomes a light golden caramel colour. Add in the apples and give them a good stir to coat with butter. Add cinnamon stick, star anise and spices. Stir to combine and leave apples to cook on a gentle heat for ~10 minutes.

Once the apples are cooked, place them in a small food processor and blend until smooth. Push the apple puree through a sieve to get a smoother consistency.

Deep Fried Brussels Sprouts

Wash, trim and halve Brussels sprouts. Preheat oil to 180C and deep fry brussels sprouts in batches, stirring occasionally until crisp and dark golden (4-5 minutes). Drain on paper towels.

Camp Fire

Tealight surrounded with wood chips made from prosciutto which had been roasted in the oven at 180C until it was dry enough to be crumbled into shards. Plus sticks of rosemary and bacon.  

Related Posts:

• Blue Apocalypse Cake
• Mushroom Apocalypse on a Desert
• Umami Flood Apocalypse
• Apocalyptic Film Dishes
• Nuclear Chicken Apocalypse

Vietnamese braised pork belly and hard boiled eggs in coconut juice (Thit Heo Kho Trung). Momofuku inspired steamed pork buns

Thit Heo Kho Trung is one of my favourite home cooked dishes. What makes a dish a home cooked dish? When I eat out at Vietnamese restaurants with my parents, I would note that a lot of the dishes I love to eat and I always have at home are not on the menu. I ask my mum why [insert name of dish here] was not on the menu and she would tell me that everyone knows how to cook that dish at home, so it’s not something that people would order when they eat out. So this is how I define a home cooked dish – a dish that people often cook at home so you won’t find it in restaurants, otherwise restaurants would be competing with every mum’s recipe and you know who would win out of that right? 

Thit Heo Kho Trung is one of those home cooked dishes that you will rarely find on restaurant menus but every Vietnamese family cooks it and would have their own recipe for it. I can see why Thit Heo Kho Trung would be a popular home cooked dish. My mum comes from a family of nine children and this would be a perfect one pot meat for such a big family – a large amount of pork and eggs are simmered in coconut juice, soy sauce and fish sauce, and served with bowls of rice.  A really simple dish to cook that produces a delicious result with sweetness coming from the coconut juice, saltiness from the soy sauce and savouriness from the fish sauce. 

When I cook a dish I am always intrigued by how other people cook it, and I will scan cookbooks and the internet for recipes to see how the way my mum cooks it compares with others. I’ve seen other ingredients added to this dish such as shallots and garlic, and other spices such as star anise or five spice. Some recipes do not use any soy sauce and only use fish sauce. Some recipes prepare a caramelized sauce made up of water and sugar first to cook the pork and eggs in. My mum’s recipe is relatively simple and uses few ingredients.

When I came across the Ravenous Couples recipe for Thi Heo Kho Trung, I saw that they had turned Thi Heo Kho Trung into a David Chang/Momofuku inspired steamed pork bun dish. It was one of those ‘damn, I wish I’d thought of that first’ moments. Encapsulating the pork inside steamed buns is a perfect way of eating this dish as the sweetness of the steamed buns complements the coconut enriched pork which has been cooked until it’s melt in your mouth tender, plus you have a tasty sticky sweet savoury sauce to go over the top of the pork, and you can add a slice of egg if desired. I haven’t eaten ‘the’ Momofuku steamed pork buns before which contains brined and roasted pork belly but I think that this could possible be better?!

Here’s my mum’s Vietnamese braised pork and eggs (Thit Heo Kho Trung) that I have turned into my own take on Momofuku inspired steamed pork buns.

I used a pressure cooker to cook the pork and included the process for cooking with a pressure cooker and a pot over the stove.

Ingredients

•    1 kg pork belly, chopped into 2-3cm cubes
•    ~ 3 cups of coconut juice (from 2 young coconuts)
•    5 small red chillies, deseeded
•    6 whole hard boiled eggs, shelled
•    fish sauce (2 ½ tablespoons)
•    light soy sauce (1 ½ tablespoons)
•    dark soy sauce (2 tablespoons)
•    salt to taste

To make Momofuku style buns – buy steamed buns from Asian supermarket, cucumber and coriander.

 Young coconut

I do not shy away from the layers of fat in pork belly, fat is what makes food taste good!

Method

Par-boil the pork – put the pork pieces into a pot of boiling water and simmer for 1-2 minutes until partially cooked. Rinse pork under cold running water and drain well.

Add the coconut juice, chillies and 1 ½ tablespoon of fish sauce into a pot/pressure cooker and bring to a simmer. Then add in the pieces of pork. 

(1) Bring to a boil and then simmer on low heat for around an hour, stirring occassionally or pressure cook for 10 minutes.

(2) Then add in 1 ½ tablespoons of light soy sauce, 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce and 1 tablespoon fish sauce. Simmer on low heat for another hour, stirring occassionally or pressure cook for 10 minutes.

(3) Test the flavour and adjust with fish sauce or sugar if required and add in a pinch of salt to balance. Add in the hard boiled eggs and simmer for another 30-45 minutes to flavour the eggs and for the sauce to reduce. 

Note: I pressure cooked this dish for a total of 20 minutes, divided into two 10 minute periods. The last step of cooking does not require pressure cooking.

I bought premade steam buns from Emma’s Seafood Asian grocery on the corner of Newcastle and William street in Northbridge. You can make them from scratch using this recipe.

To make Momofuku inspired buns – Steam buns according to packet instructions. Add in pieces of pork (slice the pork in half if too thick), a slice of egg, spoon over the egg and pork some sauce and then top with thin julienned pieces of cucumber and coriander.

You can also just eat the pork and egg with steamed rice.

 Slices of pork belly in bun

 Add a slice of egg on top

Add the braising sauce over the top

 Top with cucumber and coriander

 

Here are some of my other pork belly recipes:

• Braised pork spare ribs with pumpkin
• Twice cooked pork (Sichuan style)
• Roasted pork belly - sui yuk
• Kakuni (Japanese Braised Pork)
• Braised pork belly with daikon
• Chinese BBQ Pork 
• Communist Pork (Red Cooked Pork)
• Baki Kecap (Indonesian braised pork in sweet soy sauce)

Steamed Tofu with Minced Pork

Tofu is made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into moulds which are allowed to drain. The curds will stick together, producing soft white blocks. The process of making tofu is similar to cheese making.


There are two main kinds of tofu, silken/soft tofu, and firm/regular tofu. Both can be found in soft, medium, firm and extra firm consistencies. They are made from the same ingredients, but the curds are processed differently depending on the form of tofu that is being manufactured.


Silken tofu contains the highest moisture content and is curdled directly into the tofu’s selling package. For firm tofu, the curd is cut and strained of excess liquid using muslin and then lightly pressed to produce a soft cake. Firmer tofu is further pressed to remove more liquid. 


Choosing the right type of tofu is important for cooking. Firmer tofu will hold its shape when handled so it is the best form to use in a stir-fry while silken tofu breaks up easily and can be used in dessert dishes.


I used silken tofu silken for this dish as it was just put on a plate and steamed, and was not cooked in a way that would make it break apart. I love the melt in your mouth custard like texture of silken tofu and it’s great with some mince pork on top. The pork mixture provides flavour and a textual contrast.

Ingredients


• Block of silken tofu 
• Olive oil
• 100g mince pork (seasoned with a little salt, white pepper, fish sauce and oyster sauce)
• 1 shiitake mushroom, reconstituted and finely diced
• 2 sprig spring onion - white part only, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• ½ teaspoon grated ginger
• pinch of salt, white pepper, sugar - to taste
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• ½ teaspoon fish sauce
• ½ tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine
• 1 – 1 ½ cup chicken stock 
• 1-2 teaspoons cornflour
• garnish – chopped spring onion and coriander

(Diced shiitake mushrooms)

Method


Season the minced pork with a little salt, white pepper, fish sauce, oyster sauce and mix together well. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.


Steam the block of silken tofu for 8 minutes on low heat. 

While the tofu is steaming, make the sauce. Heat a frying pan with a little olive oil. Add in the crush garlic, grated ginger, finely diced white part of the spring onion and fry for 1 minute until fragrant. Then add in the mince pork and fry until golden brown making sure that you break up any clumps. Then add in the shiitake mushrooms and fry until the mushrooms have browned. Add in some salt, white pepper, sugar, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce and fry for a few minutes. Then deglaze with Shaoxing wine. Add in the stock and simmer for a few minutes and then thicken the mixture with the cornflour mixed with a little water.

When the tofu has finished steaming, discard the excess water before spooning on top of the tofu the mince pork sauce mixture and garnish with some spring onions and coriander.

Here are some of my other tofu recipes:

• Steamed tofu with dried scallops and shiitake mushrooms
• Yong Tau Foo (Stuffed Tofu)
• Tofu and Chinese Chive Buds Soup
• Japanese Tofu Salad
• Seaweed, Pork Balls and Tofu Soup

Babi Kecap - Indonesian braised pork in sweet soy sauce

I came across a recipe for Babi Kecap, an Indonesian braised pork in sweet soy sauce dish on the blog Almost Bourdain a few weeks ago and saved it. I have a fondness for pork belly [NB: this is the eighth pork belly recipe on my blog] and I am always looking for new ways to cook it. A braise featuring the basic aromatics used in a lot of Asian dishes – shallots, garlic, ginger and soy sauce, as well as some tamarind to give the dish some sour tones to balance the sweetness of the kecap manis sounded like it would be delicious. When I read that the recipe used pork shoulder, I immediately thought of substituting the shoulder with pork belly.

I love using pork belly for braising because as the dish cooks, some of the the fat renders into the sauce so that the pork is cooked in its own fat which enhances the flavour. "Fat is flavour” or “fat equals flavour” are popular food expressions for cooking meat. Full fat milk, ice cream, mayo and yoghurt always tastes better than the low fat variety! I like how flavour absorbs into the different layers of fat and meat of the pork belly, and the moist and juicy textural contrast of the pork fat to the layers of meat, and how the fat oozes flavour into your mouth as you eat the pork.

I adapted the recipe by adding in some Chinese five spice powder to add a bit of depth to the taste and round off the flavours in the dish. Chinese five spice powder is a mixture of five spices, there are variants but the standard spices used are star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel. The five spice blend combines the five primary flavors of Chinese cuisine - sweet, sour, pungent, bitter, and salty, and is widely used in marinades and seasoning for dishes. I used the five spice powder sparingly, only ½ a teaspoon as it has quite a strong taste and I didn't want it to dominate the flavour of the dish.

I also modified the method by par-boiling the pork and cooking everything in a wok first, and then transferring to a heavy based pot for braising. This is a method that I commonly apply to braising dishes - I fry everything together in a wok first to sear and caramelize the ingredients, and using the stir frying technique, I toss and combine the sauce and ingredients together thoroughly before transferring to a heavy based pot for simmering to allow an even distribution of heat as it braises.

Babi Kecap
(Adapted from Rick Stein's Far East Odyssey as seen on Almost Bourdain)

Ingredients

•    2 tbsp vegetable oil
•    100 g shallots, thinly sliced
•    50 g garlic, crushed
•    25 g peeled ginger, finely grated
•    ½ tsp salt, plus extra to taste
•    1 kg pork belly, cut into 3cm chunks
•    4 tbsp kecap manis (thick sweet soy sauce)
•    2 tbsp dark soy sauce
•    3 tbsp tamarind water
•    ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
•    ½ tsp Chinese five spice powder
•    8 red bird's eye chillies, slice in half lengthways and seeded
•    2 cups/500 ml chicken stock
•    Garnish – coriander and crisp fried shallots

Method

Par-boil the pork cubes and rinse with cold water.

Heat the oil in a wok over a medium heat. Add the shallots and fry until they are soft and richly golden. Add the garlic, ginger and ½ tsp salt and cook for 1 minute. Add the pork belly to the wok and fry for 2 minutes until lightly coloured. Add the kecap manis, dark soy sauce, tamarind water, pepper, five spice powder and chillies, and fry until the pork is coated in the sauces. Then add the stock to the wok and stir to combine. 

 

Transfer the contents of the wok to a heavy based pot and simmer, uncovered, for about 1 ½  hours, stirring now and then towards the end of cooking, until the pork is tender.

Lift the pork out of the sauce with a slotted spoon onto a plate. Boil the cooking liquid until it has reduced to a well-flavoured, slightly thicken, shiny, dark brown sauce. Season to taste with salt, return the pork to the pan and stir in. Spoon the pork onto a warmed serving plate, garnish with coriander and scatter with the crisp fried shallots over the top.

Here are some of my other pork belly recipes:

• Vietnamese braised pork belly with eggs in coconut juice (Thit Heo Kho Trung)
• Braised pork spare ribs with pumpkin
• Communist pork (red cooked pork)
• Twice cooked pork (Sichuan style)
• Roasted pork belly - sui yuk
• Kakuni (Japanese Braised Pork)
• Braised pork belly with daikon
• Chinese BBQ Pork

Braised pork belly with daikon

This is a dish that my mum cooks a lot. My mum told me that she learnt to cook this dish from my grandfather. My mum comes from a family of nine children and I imagine that this would be a very economical dish to cook for a big family as it uses few ingredients and is simple to cook. I only had to buy pork belly and daikon from the shops and all the other ingredients were in my cupboard and fridge.


The pork has a lovely flavour of soy sauce balanced by the sweetness of the daikon. The pieces of pork belly are wonderfully tender after hours of braising with the enzymes contained in the daikon helping to tenderise the pork as it cooks making it almost melt in your mouth. I also love the juices that are released from the daikon which provides a delicious sauce to spoon over rice.

Ingredients
• Equal quantities of pork belly, chopped into cubes and daikon, cut into 4cm chunks (I got approximately 1.5 kg of each)
• Peanut oil
• 4-5 slices of ginger
• 2-3 shallots, roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, smashed 
• 5 small red chillies, sliced open with some of the seeds taken out
• 1 ½ tablespoon caster sugar
• 2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1 ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1-2 teaspoon oyster sauce

Method
Par-boil the pork cubes and rinse with cold water.

Heat peanut oil in wok. Add in half of the ginger, garlic, shallots and chillies, and fry for a bit until fragrant. Then add in the pork cubes and fry for a few minutes until the pork pieces are slightly brown. Transfer the pork to a 4 litre heavy based pot. 

Heat peanut oil in wok. Add in the rest of the ginger, garlic, shallots and chillies, and fry for a bit until fragrant. Then add in the daikon and fry for a few minutes until slightly brown. Add the daikon to the pot with the pork belly.

Over a low heat, add 1 ½ tablespoons of sugar into the wok and 2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce. Once the sugar has melted and the mixture starts bubbling, add in 1 cup of the water (I used the water that the pork was parboiled in). When the soy sauce mixture starts to boil, turn off the heat and add into the pot with the pork and daikon. 

(soy sauce mixture morphing into some alien embryo?)

Bring the pot to boil and then simmer on low heat for around 2 hours, stirring occasionally and mix everything together. As the daikon cooks it will release its juices into the pot so you don't need to add any more water.

(Before)

(After)

After 2 hours season with some salt, pepper, fish sauce and oyster sauce to taste. Simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.


Serve with rice.

Here are some of my other pork recipes:

• Braised pork spare ribs with pumpkin
• Vietnamese braised pork belly with eggs in coconut juice (Thit Heo Kho Trung)
• Communist pork
• Twice cooked pork (Sichuan style)
• Roasted pork belly - sui yuk
• Kakuni (Japanese Braised Pork)
• Char Sui (Chinese Barbecue Pork) 
• Babi Kecap (Indonesian braised pork in sweet soy sauce)