Pork hock braised with dried oysters and peanuts

Name: Pork hock braised with dried oysters and peanuts
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 3 h 30 min
Total time: 4 h
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Cantonese
Ingredients: Pork hock 920 g; Dried oyster 8; Peanut 100 g; Red fermented bean curd 3 cubes; Fresh ginger 4 slices; Spring onion / scallion 1; Garlic 1 tsp; Rice wine (cooking wine) 1 tbsp; Star anise 1; Light soy sauce 3 tsp; Dark soy sauce 1 tbsp; Sugar 2 tsp; Oyster sauce 1 tsp; Cooking oil 1 tbsp

蠔豉花生燜豬手

BraisedPorkReunion dinnerLunar New YearFor guestsGood reheatedTakes carehands-on 30 min · start to finish 4 hr

“You eat after the offering. These few dishes are what the year waits for.”

Ingredientsserves 6

街市Pork hock· skin on, cut into 4 cm pieces — ask for it on the band saw, not chopped, so the bone does not splinter920 g

百子櫃Dried oyster· rinsed and briefly soaked8

百子櫃Peanut· raw, skins on, soaked three hours — without the soak they will not soften, and there is no shortcut100 g

雜貨舖Red fermented bean curd· mashed3 cubes

街市Fresh ginger4 slices

街市Spring onion / scallion1

街市Garlic· minced1 tsp

雜貨舖Rice wine (cooking wine)· Shaoxing1 tbsp

百子櫃Star anise1

雜貨舖Light soy sauce3 tsp

雜貨舖Dark soy sauce1 tbsp

雜貨舖Sugar2 tsp

雜貨舖Oyster sauce1 tsp

雜貨舖Cooking oil1 tbsp

Equipment

A heavy lidded pot
With a pressure cooker the braise is about thirty minutes instead

How the time splits

2 hr 30 minThe peanuts soakhands off
20 minBlanch, fry the paste, build the pothands on
1 hrLid on, low heathands off
10 minSeason and reducehands on

Method

Soak the peanuts for three hours. Put the hock into cold water with two slices of ginger and the spring onion, bring it to the boil to blanch, then lift it out, rinse and drain.
Fry the ginger, garlic and mashed 南乳 in a tablespoon of oil, add the hock and turn it until every piece is coated in the paste.
Splash in the wine, then add the oysters, the peanuts, the star anise and three cups of water, and bring it to the boil.
Cover and braise on low for an hour to an hour and a half, until the skin is soft and the meat is leaving the bone — about thirty minutes in a pressure cooker. Skim the fat off part-way through.
Add both soys, the sugar and the oyster sauce, and simmer uncovered ten minutes more to reduce. Reduce it rather than thickening it with starch: this sauce should be thick and glossy, not slippery.
Taste before you add salt. Between the 南乳 and the soy it usually needs none.

Take care

Pork, peanuts, mollusc (dried oysters and oyster sauce), soy, wheat. Cut hock can carry bone fragments — say so at the table.

The story

好市就手 — 好市 for the dried oysters, business, and 就手 for the hock, things going smoothly: two good wishes in one pot, eaten on the first or second day of the new year. It used to carry 髮菜 as well, to make it 發財好市就手; this site leaves the 髮菜 out, since harvesting it has been banned since 2000 and most of what is on the shelf is imitation, and the pot is no poorer for it. It is really the site's own 南乳炆豬手 with the New Year things added: the same pot, the same block of red fermented beancurd, a different day of the year. In Australia it is the reason somebody remembers to soak the peanuts the night before.

Same kind

Taro and pork belly, steamed and turned out

Poon choi, the walled-village basin

Dried oysters braised with shiitake, the 好市 dish

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.