Just Around The Hill

What if the world was out of love?
And all that we do don't mean a thing

You take a chance, no suffering

No suffering for anything

You're risking yourself

Do you really want it that way?

The mountain's too high

The answer, is just around the hill

***

Yes, it's been talked about ad nauseam on a thousand other SAHM blogs, but it's true - sometimes, being a mother is the most lonely thing in the world, especially when you feel that nobody, not even your husband, understands all the thousand and one old yet new emotions you're experiencing (jealousy, exhaustion, love, self-doubt). But God always understands and comforts, and I can't imagine what I would do if I didn't have Him in my life.

Confessional writing, that is, as someone wise once pointed out to me. Not very funny or uplifting, is it? Moving on, plus it's difficult to continue feeling glum and isolated when FBC is currently fast asleep and the #potd (puree of the day - well what do you know, Husband was the one who came up with that) has been made and is cooling on the kitchen counter. 

***

I got a chance to make tau you bak (hereinafter referred to as "TYB") for our cell group Chinese New Year dinner last Friday. If you follow me on Facebook, you will know that I was seized with a sudden, overwhelming desire to cook TYB about two weeks ago. Only because I like how meat looks after it's seared, before the braising process, and the way it falls apart after. Oil spatter notwithstanding.

But if I was going to have to clean up oil spatter, the final dish would have to be worth it, right? So I did some research on what would be the best method of cooking TYB - and eventually settled on a method incorporating tips from my mother, and my own experience cooking pork shoulder. Okay, so it may not be REAL TYB because I didn't use pork belly, but I'm all for cleaner eating (you should be too, but I don't want to be accused of being preachy). 

Most of the recipes I came across said to simmer the dish on the stovetop for 30-45 minutes. I also don't recall coming across any recipes using pork shoulder, though comments left on various posts suggested that pork shoulder had been used with the same simmer on stovetop method. Having previously eaten TYB with pork shoulder that was cooked on the stovetop and finding the meat a tad on the dry side, I decided to take the plunge and braise the pork shoulder in my Dutch oven, in the oven. I had achieved excellent, moist results when I last braised pork shoulder this way (in red wine and tomatoes) for our Valentine's Day dinner. 

Essentially, I just made Asian pulled pork. But it was delicious, and so was the chili sauce I put together in about 20 minutes using my food processor. No mortar and pestle, and oven braising? Do I hear the grannies turning in their graves? 

I'm sure they would have approved of these new-fangled angmoh cooking methods though.

TYB, or Asian Pulled Pork

This dish is best prepared the day before you intend to eat it, for maximum flavour to permeate all parts of it. And since you'll probably want to make it for a gathering, because pulled pork always elicits "Wow!"s, it's nice to know you have something you can grab and go and heat up at a friend's place on the day of the gathering. Especially when you have a 5-month old baby in tow.

Feeds 8-10.

The photo on the left is of my lunch today, which was the TYB left over after last Friday's gathering, together with some leftover white rice and homemade chili sauce (recipe follows as well). I have uploaded pictures of the TYB looking like pulled pork on Facebook. Although I was very happy with the end-result of this dish, I was feeding FBC when the time came to eat, so I left the photo-taking to WJ, who failed me (and you). Looks like we may have to make TYB again sometime soon.

Ingredients

Aromatics

• 2 thin slices of ginger
• About 7-10 cloves of garlic, smashed but with skins left on
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 7 cloves
• 2 star anise
• Ground white pepper*
• Rock sugar (I started with about 7 or so small cubes. Adjust this amount according to how big your rock sugar cubes are, 

Others

• About 900g-1kg of pork shoulder (three large chunks)
• 6 tbsp light soy sauce 
• 3 tbsp dark soy sauce (see below for my thoughts on tweaking these proportions. I should also add that my mother's general rule of thumb is to use half as much dark soy sauce as you would light soy sauce whenever a recipe calls for both. )
• About 2 tbsp oil (I use rice bran oil for frying)
• Water
• 6 hard-boiled eggs
• Two blocks of tau kwa, each cut into eight cubes
• Chinese parsley, to garnish

Method

1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven or other large ovenproof pot. Add ginger and garlic and fry until fragrant. The garlic skin should have touches of brown. 
2. Push ginger and garlic to one side of the pot. Add meat, and sear on all sides. Remove meat from  pot.
3. Add aromatics except for ground white pepper, and fry until the rock sugar has melted, then a bit more, for it to caramelise. Add the meat back to the pot and stir it about. Add the ground white pepper. *Most of the recipes I researched called for crushed, whole white peppercorns. I was going to invest in a bottle (it's quite cheap), but I had a packet of lovely Sarawak ground white pepper from my mother at home, so I decided against it. You are of course welcome to use whole white peppercorns instead, I read that it adds a whole lot of flavour, with some bloggers saying it is THE secret to good TYB. Of course, I probably won't know until I use up my Sarawak ground white pepper. Don't fry the ground white pepper together with the other aromatics because it will burn and then your dish will taste yucky. 
4. Add the 6 tbsp of light soy sauce and 3 tbsp of dark soy sauce. That whole smokey thing will happen, and when the smoke clears up, add just enough water to cover 1/3 of the meat. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook in a 160C oven (I turned off the fan) for about 2 hours.

After 2 hours (I recommend taking it out at about 1 hour 50 minutes), remove the pot from the oven and put on the stove. The meat should fall apart nicely. If it doesn't, stick it back in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. Continue doing this until the meat falls apart when you poke into it.

Once you have reached that stage, taste your TYB gravy. I used Kikkoman light soy sauce and Woh Hup dark soy sauce, and I found it too salty. If you find the gravy too salty, start your stove to gently heat the TYB, and add rock sugar in small increments until you get the desired balance. I think I must have added another 7 or so small cubes. You could always reduce the amount of soy sauce used by a tablespoon for each type, i.e. 5 of light soy and 2.5 of dark soy, etc. However, for something like TYB which is in any event meant to be eaten with plain rice, I think it's okay to err on the side of more flavour, and I managed to find a good balance by adding more rock sugar.

Add the peeled hard-boiled eggs (which should be just slightly undercooked. I have read plenty of blog posts about this, but just aggarate nowadays - I would say about 5 minutes at a boil, having put the eggs in cold, then another 5-7 minutes or so at a simmer. Run them under the tap until they're cool enough to peel) and cubed tau kwa to the pot. Let simmer for about 10 minutes or so, covered, then let it cool completely before sticking it in the fridge. 

If you want to eat it the day you make it, go ahead - just let the eggs and tau kwa steep for some time, I would say 2-3 hours should be alright. 

Garnish with Chinese parsley so it looks pretty for photos. It's not strictly necessary, but I like the "green" edge it adds to the flavour of TYB. 

Most of the recipes I read also called for sambal belachan. Since my mother and I couldn't figure out how we should rescue her too salty already made sambal belachan (which would be prone to burning when heated because of all the sugar added), I put the following ingredients in the food processor until I got a nice, bright red chili sauce which went excellently with the TYB (adapted from Fatboo):

• An entire NTUC packaged package of long red chilies - I must have used about 10-12. Roughly chop them. 
• About 7 chili padi from my mother's garden (optional)
• About 5 cloves of garlic, peeled
• A largeish knob of ginger
• About 2-3 tbsp of white vinegar
• About 2 tbsp of sesame oil
• Juice from about 10-12 small limes 
• About a tsp of salt
• About two tsp white sugar (you can start with one, then add another if needed)

Start by processing the chilies until you get a rough paste, then add the garlic and ginger and process some more. Add the other ingredients and taste as you go, adding more of each until you get a taste that's to your liking. After all, that's how they did it in the old days. And I'm beginning to find that the more I cook, the more aware I'm becoming of the different ingredients and how their flavours affect each dish I make. So be bold, and go forth in aggaration.

Because of the white vinegar and lime juice, this chili sauce cuts through the rich flavour of the TYB nicely.