This dish has a very special place in my heart. It is only cooked when there are celebrations or some great festivities in my family. So I associate it with happy memories.
Very different from the Cantonese version, which uses dark vinegar and ginger. The Hakka version has a lot more nuances in taste, as the flavours of soy sauce, dried chilli, sour plum, sugar and white vinegar come into play. The gravy is sourish, sweetish, salty, and very garlicky and a bit spicy at the same time. Very delicious. Die die must try.
If you are a Hakka, and you have been searching for the recipe, this is it.
Here's the recipe:
1 Pig leg, chopped up.
1 kg of lean muscle meat
5 bulbs of garlic, de-shelled.
2.5 tablespoon of sugar
3 tablespoon of light soy sauce
4.5 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
6-8 dried chillies
5 sour plums
2 ladle of white vinegar
Water
Wash the leg meat and scald it with hot water to get rid of porky smell.
Chop the pig leg into medium chunks, and the muscle meat into medium chunks.
Peel the garlic.
Put the meat, sour plums, dried chillies and half the amount of garlic into a large steel pot, and top up with water until the ingredients are barely covered with water. Add the light and dark soy sauce.
Boil and gently stir over a medium fire for 30 minutes.
Bring down to low fire and simmer for 2 hours, topping up water occasionally.
Add the sugar. Simmer for 15 minutes. Stop adding water.
Add in remainder of the garlic so that they are not dissolved.
Simmer for another 15 minutes. Most of the water would have evaporated by now, leaving a thick gravy.
Add in the 2 ladle of white vinegar.
Simmer for another 10 minutes.
Taste and adjust according to preference.
Serve.
