How to Cook Malacca Pork
Serves: 4-6
Preparation time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 2 hours 10 mins
Ingredients needed to make Malacca Pork:
- 2 lb pork butt, boneless and chopped into 1 cubes
- 2 fresh hot chillies, thinly sliced
- 3’’ fresh ginger, sliced into matchsticks
- ½ lb shallots, peeled
- 2’’x1’’ orange peel
- 1 star anise
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 4 whole cloves
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 2 tbsp tamari sauce
- 3 tbsp cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- Cooked jasmine rice, for serving
Cooking instructions for Malacca Pork:
- Dump the shallots into a blender and pulse them into a smooth puree.
- Place the whole spices as well as the orange peel in a piece of cheesecloth and tie it up into a bundle with a knot on top to secure; set aside.
- Drizzle oil in a Dutch oven and heat it over moderate flame until it starts shimmering.
- Sauté the ginger in it for a minute or two, stirring often, and scrap out the shallot puree from the blender into the pan.
- Give it a nice stir to mix well and continue to sauté for 5-10 minutes, stirring regularly, until the raw smell disappears and it becomes slightly golden in colour; avoid burning the mixture.
- Nestle the bundled spices into the middle of the fried paste and cook for a minute or until their spicy flavours are infused into the sautéed mixture.
- Throw in the pork chunks and continue to sauté for 10 more minutes or until they brown evenly.
- Add a splash of water, followed by tamari sauce as well as vinegar and sprinkle the sugar on top.
- Stir them all together to mix well, while scratching out the browned bits from the pan and continue to cook the mixture until it starts boiling.
- Bring it down to a simmer over slow flame and place a lid on top to cover partially.
- Continue to simmer gently for a couple of hours or until ¾ of the cooking liquid evaporates and the meat is cooked through yet doesn’t appear flaky on touch.
- Remove the lid and bring it to a rolling boil over increased heat, while stirring gently all this time.
- Reduce it to a simmer again and cook for 8 minutes or until it thickens to resemble the consistency of thick melted chocolate; skim off any excess fat accumulating on the surface of the sauce.
- Pour the Malacca pork into a large serving dish and allow it to cool slightly for half an hour.
- Sprinkle the chiles on top and serve alongside steamed jasmine rice.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
