This is a traditional Hakka braised pork belly with a lot of fat. You got to get at least 3 layers: skin, fat and meat that what my grandma told my mom. As the years goes by all of us kind of not keen on too fatty pork belly, so mom got the pork with a bit less fat. Yet, it still has the same flavour from the marinade as it has to be marinade for 2-4 hours.

Today I am adding hard-boiled eggs, replaced black fungus with shiitake mushrooms, and making thicker sauce; something I can call my own creative dish. To make this, you need to deep fry the pork belly pieces; this is the part I don’t fancy doing, but I crave it, so I am wearing rubber gloves, goggles, and a face mask. Then braise with garlic and shiitake mushrooms until the pork belly and black fungus have softened.

The char chee yoke is really soft, and taste delicious like grandma’s cooking. The different to my grandma recipe are the addition of hardboiled eggs and thicker sauce. I am happy it turned out comforting delicious. Let’s cook!!!

Ingredients

Hard-boiled eggs

4-6 eggs
water

Char chee yoke

1 kilo of pork belly, wash, drain and cut into 3 or 4 long strips
8-10 dried shiitake mushroom, soaked overnight
½ bulb of garlic with skins, break them into individual garlic piece
4 eggs
3 Tbs of 5 spice powder
2 Tbs dark caramel sauce
5 Tbs plain flour
6 Tbs brandy or whiskey
¾ Tbs salt
1 Tsp ajinomoto (OPT)
oil for deep frying
1 Tbs minced garlic
water enough to cover pork
1-2 Tbs cornflour with 2-3 Tbs water, to thickened the sauce (OPT)

Method

Marinade pork belly

Place the long strip pork belly in a big bowl, add 5 spice, plain flour, salt, ajinomoto, brandy and crack the eggs in. Mix well till combined. Set in fridge for 6 hours to develop the flavour.

Hardboiled eggs

Put kettle on. Before boiling egg, add 1 tray of ice cubes to a large bowl and fill with tap water. Place eggs in a pot in a single layer. Add enough hot water carefully not to crack the eggs and to cover the eggs by at least 1 inch. Bring the water to a rolling boil over high heat. Once the water reaches a boil, remove the pot from the heat. Cover the pot and let the eggs sit in the hot water for 10-12 minutes. Immediately transfer the eggs to large bowl of cold water with ice cubes. After 1 hour, place the large bowl with eggs in to the fridge for 2-4 hours for easy to peel.

 To peel, first gently tap hard-boiled eggs all over to thoroughly crack the shell, then remove shell under the bowl of cold water. Note: Shell-on hard-boiled eggs can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days in an air tight container. Once the shell is removed, they can be refrigerated for up to 1 day.

Next, bring out the marinated pork belly to room temperature for about 30 minutes. Heat oil on medium high heat. Wear gloves, goggles, a long food clipper, and face mask; slowly add the pork belly in. Deep fry a few pieces at a time about 4-6 minutes until golden brown and removed to a paper towel plate. Once deep frying all the pork, heat a big pot with oil. Then add 1 Tbs minced garlic fry till fragrant about 1 minutes. Add the fried pork to the pot.

Cut the shiitake mushrooms to bite size. Then add shiitake mushrooms into pot. Strain and pour just 1/8 c of mushrooms shiitake water into the pot. Smash the individual garlic and add into pot. Next add enough water slight above the pork about 1 inch to braise the pork until soft about 40-50 minutes.

After 40 minutes, add in the hardboiled eggs for 10 minutes to warmed up. Check seasoning. To thickened the sauce: mix cornflour and water, gives a couple of stirs until no lumps. Then pour into the pot; stirs to mixed well; make sure not to break the eggs. Spoon char chee yoke onto a bowl and serve with rice, some vegetables as side dish. Serve with a glass of white wine. Enjoy!!!!

Note: Do not add pepper. If you don’t want to be too liquid add a little less water. If you like it darker colour add 2 Tbs of dark caramel sauce.

https://helenscchin.com/2022/05/22/char-chee-yoke-with-eggs/

#helenscchinrecipes
#meat
#asianculinarycurrynoodles
#cookingforthefun
#foodiesplus