《 Grama Kitchen 5》 The two dishes of Pork Belly
In my past blog, I had mentioned that my mum loved to cook pork dishes such as pan fry pork mince with eggs, steam pork minced, braised pork belly, and sweet & sour pork ribs. Today I want to introduce two ways of cooking pork belly. The first is “pork belly with soup”.
Pork Belly with Soup
Mum normally bought lean pork belly from the market because we children did not like the fat one. After cleaning the pork belly, mum would cut them into long strips and cook them in a large pot of boiling water where she placed some gingers and garlic. It took at least half an hour for the pork to cook. To test if they were cooked, mum would use a chopstick to poke the meat. If the chopstick could go through the meat, it implied that the meat was cooked. Meanwhile, mum would prepare the vegetables i.e. cabbage, white carrot, fungus, mushrooms and tofu.
When the pork strips were cooked, mum would take them out and placed them on a big plate. She then put in the soup the cut vegetables and let it boiled for a while. This delicious vegetable soup can be served after adding salt and pepper to one’s taste. At the dinner table, mum would also serve the pork stripes after cutting (usually about a half inch) and sprinkled them with sesame oil and salt.
It is important to note that mum always made sure that the pork strips were cut in sizes ideal for eating. We often eat the pork by dipping them in soy or chili sauce. Mum has intelligently cook two dishes for our big family concurrently. Both the vegetable soup and pork belly were nutritious. Sometimes if mum felt there was not enough food for us, she would quickly fry eggs with chopped onion or cook another vegetable dish. All the family members enjoyed her food. INGREDIENTS: Pork Belly 2 kg Ginger 2 pieces Garlic 4 pieces Vegetables: Cabbage 1 kg Carrot 1/2 kg Mushrooms 10 pieces Fungus 10 pieces
Tofu 5 pieces