Dish of Pork Belly Braise
(click to enlarge)

Pork Belly Braise


Malay - Nonya   -   Tauk Yu Bak
Makes:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 1-1/2 #
***
1-3/4 hrs
Yes		 A rich and flavorful accent main dish, Served with plenty of steamed Jasmine rice. See Serving and Comments.

1
4
4
1
1/4
2-1/2
4
1-1/2
1/2
#

cl
in
c
c
oz
T
t
Pork belly (1)
Eggs, hard (2)
Garlic
Ginger Root
Soy Sauce, dark  
Water
Tofu Puffs (3)
Oil
Salt
Do Ahead   -   (25 min - 5 min work)
  1. Hard boil Eggs. See Boiling Eggs page for best method. Shell them and set aside.
Prep   -   (15 min)
  1. Cut PORK BELLY into pieces about 3/8 x 3/8 or 1/2 x 1/2 inch square and the length the slab is thick (or the width of the slices).
  2. Crush GARLIC. Crush GINGER. Mix.
Run   -   (1-1/3 hr)
  1. In a spacious sauté pan or wok, heat OIL and fry Garlic mix until Garlic shows some color.
  2. Stir in Pork and tumble until seared all over, then pour in Soy Sauce and stew for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
  3. Stir in Water and bring to a boil. Cover and turn to a simmer for about 45 minutes.
  4. Stir in Tofu Puffs and Eggs. Continue to simmer uncovered for another 10 minutes, stirring and rotating eggs now and then.
  5. Stir in Salt and continue at a strong simmer until the sauce is as you want it. Note: when it's taken off the heat you'll find you have a lot less sauce than you thought you did, so don't reduce it too much. It should still be fairly liquid for serving with rice.
  6. Serve with steamed Jasmine rice. The Eggs (if used) can be sliced in half when served. See also Serving.
NOTES:

  1. Pork belly:

    also called "uncured bacon" is readily available in East and Southeast Asian markets. It may be sold as a slab or may be sliced but should not be sliced thinner than about 3/8 inch. For details see our Pork Belly page. You could also use a mix of Pork Belly and Pork Shoulder meat, cut to similar size but shorter. The photo example has some Pork Shoulder in it to make up for a shortage in Pork Belly.

  2. Eggs:

    This item is stated as optional in the pattern recipe, but is traditional.

  3. Tofu Puffs:

      These are soft spongy cubes of deep fried Tofu. They are available in pretty much any market serving an East or Southeast Asian community. The ones in the photo example were about 3/4 inch on a side, but a bit larger is fine. If the ones you have are too big, they can be cut to size. The ones used by the pattern recipe were round and much softer than the ones used here, but taste the same.

  4. Serving:

      This dish is quite rich, so serving size should be smaller than usual, say 7oz instead of 8oz. As in the photo example, a half egg will be enough for all but the hungriest, but the amount of the recipe in that dish is more than two servings.

  5. Comments:

      This dish is quite rich, but keep in mind, the Low Fat Diet was fraudulent from it's inception. "Paid for science" by the sugar industry, knowing if you ate less fat you'd eat more sugar - and also to cover up growing evidence that sugar was a significant cause of heart disease.
  6. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste
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