Tau Eu Bak (Stewed brasied Pork Belly)

Ahh, the ultimate comfort food from home. A staple my grandmother used to make and pack into little tin carriers called "tingkats" for us to share at the dinner table. My favourite item of this dish is the braised boiled egg while my husband's is the mushrooms. The thing I like about this dish is that it tastes very good even as leftovers. I never used to put in many mushrooms when I make this but I've found that they made a useful addition to any boiled vegetable you might want to serve as an accompanying dish. This saved me the trouble of having to think of another vegetable dish to make up a balanced meal. This dish is lovely served with fluffy rice or even porridge.

Found a bottle of hoisin sauce at Footscray market going on sale so I added it to this delightful dish. Also this was the first time I used my 5-in-1 multicooker which has a pressure cooking function that allows me to get this dish tender in <1h instead of the 2h+ it usually takes. (: A picture of my "magic pot" as one of my friends has aptly named.

Ingredients:

- Lean Pork Belly ~800g (you can get the fatty one if you wish, but since I had the pressure cooker, I got the leaner cuts)

- 6 boiled eggs, shelled

- a handful of dried chinese mushrooms, rehydrated

- 5 cloves of garlic, shelled 

- 1 cinnamon stick

- 2.5 star anise

- 6 tbps dark soya sauce

- 4 tbps light soya sauce

- 6 tbps chinese cooking wine

- 4 tbps kecap manis

- hoisin sauce (optional)

- sugar and salt to taste

Note on rehydrating mushrooms: use cold water for rehydration if time permits as this would retain the natural flavour of the mushrooms better, warm water if you're pressed for time. Never throw away the water used to rehydrate the mushrooms, they would add flavour to any dish.

Directions:

While setting the mushrooms to rehydrate, parboil the pork belly to rid it of surface dirt and oil and make it yield more easily to your knife. Cut into one inch sections. Marinate the pieces in 3 table spoons of dark soya sauce, the same amount of cooking wine and 1 tablespoon of kecap manis.

Pound the cinnamon stick and star anise and bruise the garlic. Brown the garlic until fragrant and sear the meat together with the spices. Transfer the meat into a vessel with all the marinate, the mushroom, mushroom water, 1 cup water and the remaining amounts of dark soya sauce, chinese wine, light soya sauce, kecap manis and hoisin sauce for slow cooking/ simmering, if you have a magic pot like mine, you could use the pressure cooking function on high pressure for 25 minutes. 

After 25 minutes, add the eggs in and cook on low pressure for 20 minutes. If eggs are not completely submerged in the liquid you may cook for 10 minutes and stop to turn the eggs over and continue to cook for another 10 minutes to ensure the eggs are braised evenly. For even softer meat, cook on high pressure for a longer period. 

If you do not have a magic pot like mine, you could simmer the meat on the stove for around 2 hours and add the eggs after 1.5h.