Belly Pork Braised in Soy Sauce (Tau Yu Bak)

This is another of mum’s specialty. Mine can never get close to hers, I wonder what secret ingredients she left out telling me. I love the tofu braised in this sauce more than the meat. Admittedly mum doesn’t use dark soy sauce in hers, she prefers the lighter colour for the sauce. I use both thin soy sauce and the thick dark soy sauce for its caramel characteristic.

Ingredients

2 strips of belly pork (about 800g), I asked the butcher to pick lean cuts for me

2 cm chunk of ginger

5 cloves of garlic

2 star anise

5 cloves

1 stick of cinnamon

1 tbsp whole peppercorns

¼ cup of light soy sauce

3 tbsp of thick dark soy sauce

2 tsp of five spice powder

2 tsp of cracked pepper

3 cm lump of rock sugar

1 cup of water

1 tbsp cooking oil

6 pieces of hard tofu(I used fried soft tofu in this)

4 shelled hard boiled eggs

Method

1.          Marinate the meat (leave them in full strips) with five spice powder, cracked pepper and dark soy sauce for at least 30minutes.

2.          In a heavy based casserole pan, heat the oil and sear the meat on all sides without colouring them too much.

3.          Add in the garlic (skin on is fine) and the ginger, sauté slightly without colouring them.

4.          Then add all the spices, soy sauce and water.

5.          Bring the water to the boil, skim off any impurities on the top.

6.          Reduce the heat, cover with a lid, and simmer the pork for about 45 minutes.

7.          Add in the tofu and the hard boil eggs and simmer a further 5-10 minutes with the lid off.

8.          Cut the meat into 1cm slice and serve with steaming white rice and the sauce over it.