My wife really loves it when her mother cooks thịt kho tàu, a Vietnamese braised pork dish, for her. It always brings her back to her childhood. I will likely never be able to replicate her mother's recipe, but this version of the dish gets her thumbs up.
Servings: 5-6
Ingredients:
* 2 lbs pork shoulder (trimmed) cut into 1-1/2 in. cubes* 1/2 yellow onion cut into large pieces length-wise
* 4 cloves of garlic, smashed
* 5 hard boiled eggs, peeled (one can quail eggs drained)
* 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
* 4 tbsp fish sauce
* 12 oz coconut water
* 1/2 bar Chinese brown sugar (can substitute with 2.5 tbsp granulated sugar)
* Salt and Black pepper to taste
* 1 small Thai chili pepper cut into small rings (optional if you want to spice up the dish)
Step 1 - Blanch the Pork
- In a large stock pot, add pork and enough water to fully submerge the pork.
- Heat pot until water is just boiling.
- Remove pot from heat.
- Carefully strain and rinse pork in cold water to remove scum.
- Rinse pot to remove any remaining scum.
Step 2 - Braise the Pork
- Add pork, coconut water, fish sauce, brown sugar, garlic, onion, and dark soy sauce to pot (optionally: Thai chili pepper)
- Add cold water to the pot until pork is just fully submerged.
- Bring to boil.
- Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 1-1/2 hours until pork is fork tender.
- About 30 minutes before the pork is done, add the hard boiled eggs to the pork and continue cooking.
- Season with black pepper to taste.
Serve hot over rice.
