Tau Yew Bak (Braised Pork in Soy Sauce)
A super easy recipe to make for a weekday dinner after work, this braised pork dish is a delicious comfort food that doesn't require much prep time.
- Prep time
- 10 min
- Cook time
- 40 min
- Yield
- 2 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 0.55 lb pork
- 1½ Tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1½ Tablespoon dark soy sauce (If you like your food on the sweeter side, you can use kicap manis instead of dark soy sauce. )
- ¼ T 5 spice powder (Substitute: spices such as cinnamon stick, star anise and peppercorns )
- 1 teaspoon white granulated sugar ((+extra for the sauce later, to taste) Substitute: rock sugar)
- 1 Tablespoons Oil
- 1 bulb garlic (peeled and minced)
- Water (Enough to just about cover the meat in the pan. Substitute: pork stock)
- Salt (to taste)
- Hard boiled eggs/ firm tofu/ cooked peanuts/ dried shiitake mushrooms/ carrots (Optional)
- Coriander leaves (Optional garnish, rough chop)
- Sambal belacan chilli (Optional )
Instructions
- 1
15 minutes before you want to cook, add both soy sauces, the white sugar and the 5-spice powder to the pork. Mix well and leave covered on the counter to come to room temperature.
- 2
In the meantime, mince up your garlic.
- 3
Heat your pot over low-medium heat, then add some vegetable oil or lard. When the oil is shimmering, add the garlic and stir fry till fragrant. Tip: If you have whole spices such as star anise, white peppercorns and cassia cinnamon, you can crush them then add and stir fry in the oil for a more aromatic dish.
- 4
Increase the heat to medium then add the pork and lightly brown the pieces. It should caramelise nicely thanks to the sugar and dark soy added!Note: Reduce the heat to low if using pork belly. If not, your dish will be super oily!
- 5
Add enough water (or pork stock) to cover the pork then cover and simmer for 40-60 minutes, or till the pork is soft, cooked and you get a nice syrupy sauce. Remember to top up the water if the pan is drying out!Tip: Don't add too much water at first or you may be braising for ever. You may also need to top up some extra water if your pan gets dry.
- 6
If including hard boiled eggs/ tofu/ carrots to bulk up the dish, add them in during the last 10-15 minutes of cooking. (You can actually add the other ingredients earlier if you want their flavour to be more concentrated, however this will give you overcooked eggs with the tell-tale green rim around the powdery yolks)
- 7
At the same time, taste and season the stew (salt and maybe more sugar- will depend on the dark soy you use) accordingly to taste then serve with a bowl of piping hot white rice.