Braised Pork Belly aka Tau Iu Bak

Sometimes the best kind of food are the simple ones that taste like home.

Tau Iu Bak literally translates to dark soy sauce braised pork belly. This is a staple dish back in Penang. Every household would cook this dish at least once a week. It's such an easy and versatile dish to cook, appetising for both kids and adults.

These days the economy rice stalls would have it too, because it is such a well received dish.

I would sometimes cook this with boiled eggs. There's no need to remind my boys to eat dinner as they would finish it in a blink of an eye.

This dish is best eaten with a bowl of steam rice to soak up the delicious gravy that is left at the bottom of the bowl.

Ingredients:

500g pork belly, cut into small chunks

1 bulb of garlic, peeled and lightly smashed

6 chinese mushrooms, soaked, drained, cut into quarters and squeeze out all the excess water

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

approximately 750ml to 1L water

Boiled eggs, peeled 

Steps:

In a pot boil some water and scald the pork belly. Drain and rinse. This is designed to remove the impurities of the pork, not to cook it.

Heat a heavy bottom pot or caserole dish and throw the garlic in. 

Give it a good stir, then add the pork belly. Toss until they browned. Add in the mushrooms. 

Next add in the soy, dark soy and oyster sauce and stir to coat the meat. Pour in the water last. You don't want too much water, just enough to cover the pork.

Let it boil, then turn the heat to low and let it simmer slowly over the low heat. At this stage you can add in your boiled eggs and let it simmer together with the pork so that the eggs soak in the sweetness and saltyness of the gravy. Check from time to time that the gravy has not evaporated completely.

Dish up and serve with a bowl of steam rice.

Happy cooking everyone!