Pork Leg in Vinegar and Ginger (猪脚醋 / 姜醋)

Not for the fainthearted, this one. The dark broth, with pork meat soft and tender from slow stewing, is fiery with ginger and acidic with vinegar, but the old wives swear by it and so does my husband. Perfect for ladies during their postnatal confinement period or even just for a cold winters' night such as this.

Many thanks to my mum in law who cooked this for my confinement and who willingly shared this recipe with me (stay tuned, my mum in law is an excellent chef and hopefully more of her recipes will star in this blog in future). I've adapted the seasonings slightly to cater to my husband's palate but as always, the guide is always "season to taste".

Since it is virtually impossible to get pork trotters here I've gone for the next best thing which is pork hock/leg on the bone, which came to about 1 kg including the bone. I've also tried this with pork belly, which tenderizes a lot more quickly but is obviously not as meaty and chunky as leg meat

Ingredients

1 whole pork leg – in large chunks

150 ml Chinese Black Rice Vinegar

1 1/2 tsp brown sugar  

2-3 rice bowlsful of old ginger, sliced or shredded

3 tbsp light soya sauce (or 2 tsbp light soy sauce + salt to taste)

2 tsp of dark soya sauce 

1 – 2 tbsp sesame oil

4 cloves of garlic, lightly crushed

Shelled hard boiled eggs (optional) 

Blanch the leg pieces in boiling water for a few minutes to remove the smell and scum. Drain.
Heat the sesame oil in a pot and fry the garlic and old ginger slices until fragrant. Add the leg pieces and fry for a few minutes. Add the vinegar (if not feeling adventurous, use slightly less than the prescribed amount - you can easily add more later on). 

Add boiling water to the pot until it is about 4/5 full, and bring to the boil. Add the dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, sugar (you can actually do this later on, but personally I like the "dump it all in a pot and leave it for X amount of time" approach), and hard boiled eggs. Simmer for 2 hours or more, allowing the soup to thicken (or adding water if necessary) to the desired consistency.

Serve with rice.

Recipe courtesy of Rosalind Hon, minor amendments by Jacq Chan of NkR Productions.