Babi Pongteh
Babi pongteh is a peranakan stew with strong flavours. This dish keeps well refrigerated.
- Prep time
- 10 min
- Cook time
- 2 hr 30 min
- Yield
- 8 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg front pork knuckle with trotter, chopped chunky
- 4 tsp thick dark soya sayce
- 100 g sugar cane, 30 cm long (or 25 g rock sugar )
- 50 g shallots
- 80 g garlic
- 30 ml oil (160ml in the original recipe)
- 60 g light brown taucheo (fermented soya bean paste)
- 2 tbsp light soya sauce
- 2 tsp thick dark soya sauce
- 20 g palm sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 10 medium size Chinese dried mushrooms, 60 g
- 100 g canned bamboo shoots
Instructions
- 1
Blanch pork knuckle in boiling water. Remove hair if any. Rinse thoroughly. Marinate with 4 tsp thick dark soya sauce for 30 minutes.
- 2
Optional ingredient: Rinse dried mushrooms. Soak in 500 ml water till soft, abut 30 minutes. Drain, reserving water. Trim, reserving stems.
- 3
Wash sugar cane. Quarter lengthwise. Chop each quarter into 4 pieces.
- 4
Peel shallots and wash. Pound semi-finely.
- 5
Peel garlic and pound semi-finely.
- 6
Optional ingredient: Cut bamboo shoots into bite-size wedges 6 mm thick. Boil in water for a few minutes. Drain.
- 7
In a wok, fry shallots in hot oil over low heat till translucent. Add garlic and stir-fry till everything is lightly golden. Add fermented soya bean paste and fry till semi-dry, intensely aromatic, and colour changes, about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to very low. Add light and dark soya sauce. Fry 10 seconds. Add pork and marinade. Increase heat slightly. Stir-fry till semi-dry and intensely aromatic, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a pot.
- 8
Deglaze wok with 1 cup water. Add the water to the pork, along with palm sugar, sugar cane, salt and, if using, mushrooms, mushroom stems, mushroom water, and bamboo shoots. Top up with enough water to just cover. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer gently, adding more water when necessary, till pork is tender but still has some bite. This should take about 2¼ hours.Sauce should be medium brown and with substance, not thin and watery. Increase heat to boil rapidly if necessary. Taste and adjust seasoning (I added 2 tbsp taucheo liquid). Turn off heat.
- 9
Serve babi pongteh hot, topped with crushed red bird's eye chillies. Alternatively, sambal belachan with a squeeze of calamansi juice would make a nice dip. Eat with steamed rice, or you can dip toasted French loaf in the sauce.