Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Babi Asam, Braised Pork Belly In Tamarind Sauce - "Malaysian Monday 34"



We have been having Malaysian meals for the last few nights and this is another delicious nyonya dish with tamarind being the main ingredient used. The delicious tart sauce cuts through the rich and meltingly tender pork belly beautifully, a perfect dish for our chilly autumn evening. Tummy was a little suspicious of this rather ordinary looking dish at first but was  soon returned with a second serving of rice - what a great relief! I hope you will be game enough to give this wonderful dish a try. 



serves 4 as part of a Malaysian dish
you'll need;
1 kg of pork belly, cut into large chunks
2 tbs of peanut oil
8 candlenuts
6 shallots, chopped
1 tbs of shrimp paste
4 tbs of sugar
2 tbs of preserved soya bean paste
3/4 cup of instant tamarind paste
1/2 cup of chicken stock
6 green chillies, halved lengthwise
6 red chillies, halved lengthwise



Pound candlenut, shallots and shrimp paste to a fine paste, set aside.



Cut chillies lengthwise and remove the seeds.



Cut pork belly into large chunks.



Saute prepared paste with 2 tbs of cooking oil until fragrant (~5 minutes).



Add sugar and preserved soya bean paste and continue to cook for a minute or two. Chuck pork into the pan and cook for 5 to 10 minutes before adding stock and tamarind paste.



Add chillies and mix well. Simmer with cover on until pork is very tender (1 ~ 1.5 hours). Check for seasonings before serving, it should be sour, sweet and salty.



Serve as part of a Malaysian meal, you will need plenty of steamed rice with this dish.



I will be hosting the April event, please send all your entries to sureshchong@yahoo.com. To find out more about the event please click HERE.

12 comments:

  1. Il y a toujours beaucoup de saveurs sur ton blog.
    Ca sent toujours très bon.
    See soon.

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  2. I should know better by now to never read your posts when it is late and I am hungry! I shall be dreaming of pork belly tonight :)

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  3. Harriet from carltonApril 7, 2011 at 2:59 PM

    The sauce must be so flavoursome with all the goodies in it :)

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  4. I love the colours of this dish it looks so festive and comforting :)

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  5. I have turned vegetarian a decade ago. Even then I can appreciate the dish featured here. It looks just delicious

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  6. salam ziarah...blog yg segar ...suke

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  7. Thanks for another wicked pork belly dish! We are big fan of the fatty cut :)

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  8. I love the amount of chillies in this dish.

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  9. Such a nice treat to my belly...:)

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  10. i love eating anything that has a sauce to it and especially when its with pork. simmering for 1.5 hours...i could taste the fat right now and melting in my mouth hehehe...niceee

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  11. that looks so yummy!!! slow cooked pork belly.. oh man can just imagine the wonderful meltingly soft flesh now. yum!!

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  12. Thank you for your recipe I tried it at the week end and I like it
    So much. It tastes so good and the fatty pork belly I ate the more I am hungry. Yummy yummy!!!!!

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