Foodie

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Woo Tau Kow Yoke

,This is a classic dish which is served on special occasions. I learned to make this dish from a friend who is hakka, so i presume this is the favorite of the hakka clan. Correct me if i am wrong.

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Ingredients:

1 lb belly pork
1 lb taro, peeled and cut into thick slices to match the size of a piece of sliced belly pork, rub with 5 spice powder
2 stem spring inions (white part)
1 tbsp cooking wine
1 tsp black soya sauce
1/4 tsp 5 spice powder

Sauce:

2 shallots - peeled and minced
2 cloves garlic - minced
½ tbsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp msg
1 cube nam yee / red fermented beancurd
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp sesame oil
Dash of pepper
1 cup water


½ tbsp tapioca flour

Method:

1. Parboil belly pork in boiling water together with cooking wine and spring onions for 10 minutes. Remove wash well and pat dry.Rub the skin with black soya sauce and the meat with 5 spice powder.

2. Heat enough oil for deep frying. Deep-fry the belly pork, skin side downtill light golden. Remove and soak for 1/2 hour in cold water to wash off oil and to regain moisture lost in frying. Slice pork into 1/2 inch pieces and dust with tapioca flour.

3. Deep fry taro slices till golden. Drain well and dust with tapioca flour.

4. Heat wok with a tbsp oil. Sauté shallots and garlic, add in nam yee . Add in the rest of the sauce ingredients. let it come to a boil.

5. Using a deep dish or a chinese soup bowl, arrange a piece of pork slice and alternate with a piece of fried taro. Repeat with the rest of the pork and taro. Make sure they are packed snuggly in the dish/bowl.

6. Pour the sauce over the assembled platter.

7. Cover the assembled platter with aluminium foil and place into pressure cooker which has an inch of water. Pressurized for 1 hour. Turn off heat and let pressure released by itself. Carefully remove from pressure cooker and remove foil.

8. Tilt to remove sauce and if sauce is too thin, it can be thickened with tapioca flour.

9. Put serving plate over assembled platter and turn it over. Pour back the sauce and serve hot.

Serves

19 comments:

FooDcrazEE said...

delish! presurrized cooker is good. We need to steamed the kow yoke for hours as we dint have the pressurized cooker.

Unknown said...

foodcrazee

a pressure cooker is one pot i can do without. It helps busy ppl like me to have stews and soups in a jiffy. Cheaper cuts of meat can be turned into a sumptous dish with it. Get one that you can replace the rubber casket. I had 2 which is an ordinary pot cos i could not trace the company anymore. i think Prestige is the most popular in malaysia.

hoangtam/tt said...

lily,
my mom makes this with roasted pork belly and she add some 5 spice powder too. ;)

Unknown said...

tt

thanks for reminding me that 5 spice powder is used. i do use 1/4 tsp rubbed into pork before frying. Roast pork is really very good for this dish and easy too, omit the hassle of parboil and frying the pork. Will edit posting. thanks again

Little Corner of Mine said...

Ahhh...so you got the nam yee and taro on that day to make this. One of my favorite dishes too!

Anonymous said...

lily, could you post a picture of the taro that you used in this recipe? I have tried to make this, but have accidently bought the wrong taro on many occations. I have bought sweet potatoes, "taro" that is white with red/purple strands inside, and taro that is pure white, but taste slightly slimy when cooked. From experience, I know the taro that is used for this dish will be purple when cooked, right? Thanks!

Unknown said...

anonymous

taro is called yam in malaysia. in cantonese it is woo tau. it comes in several variety. there is 'pannong woo' which is round and the flesh is white. The favorite is slightly purplish. there is very tiny taro which is good for eating on it's own as it is quite slimmy and not so powdery.

you could use sweet potatoes for this dish but it is on the sweeter side. pumpkin can also be used too.

Unknown said...

anonymous

taro is called yam in malaysia. in cantonese it is woo tau. it comes in several variety. there is 'pannong woo' which is round and the flesh is white. The favorite is slightly purplish. there is very tiny taro which is good for eating on it's own as it is quite slimmy and not so powdery.

you could use sweet potatoes for this dish but it is on the sweeter side. pumpkin can also be used too.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lily, what's the purpose of putting the meat + taro into a bowl & covered it with foil? Can we just put the meat + taro directly into the pressure cooker? My pressure cooker is digital electric & has a removable cooking pot.. Thanks

Unknown said...

anonymous

steaming the meat & taro in a bowl is just for presentation. you could just cook in any pot you desire, the taste is there.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your explanation Lily, I tried the dish yesterday & needless to say it was a hit! My husband said it tasted better than the restaurant :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Lily :) I don't have a pressure cooker, but I use a wok or a bigger pot for steaming. I'm kampung that way. Hee. How long should I steam the dish for using the conventional way and at what degree, low/ mid high heat?

Unknown said...

anonymous

have to apologise for the delayed reply cos i could not find the recipe to tag with your comment.

to steam the conventional way, you could check for doneness after 1 hour as sometimes the belly pork can be very tough. Continue to steam until the pork is soft.

Laura said...

This reminded me of my grandma. She's the only one who ever made it. I haven't had this for over 10 years. :(
I don't have a pressure cooker. DO you think a slow cooker will do the same thing?
BTW, I love your blog!

Unknown said...

laura

yes, you ca cook it in the slow cooker but it will take a longer time. Steaming it in a wok or pot will be the next alternative

Anonymous said...

Aunty Lily,

You are right. This is a Hakka dish.

Usually we arrange it like this- one slice of pork with 2 slices yam.

btw, you might like to warn the readers to wear gloves or rub salt outside the yamskin.It can be real itchy when handling raw yam.

But I myself do not know how to choose "powdery" yam without cutting a bit of the end away.

paulfoo78

Unknown said...

paulfoo78

yes, yam is like shrimp, it does have some reaction on the hands. So, readers, if you think you will get a rash after handling raw yam or shrimp, please do wear rubber gloves.

Anonymous said...

hi Lily,

do you just place the bowl directly onto the base of the pressure cooker? or is there a stand between the base of the pressue cooker and the bowl?

thanks!

Unknown said...

anonymous

Put a steamer rack that fits the pressure cooker and let the bowl sit on it. Put in about 1 inch of water.

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