Pressured Cooking - Pork Trotter in Black Sweet Vinegar 猪脚醋

You notice that that I have disappeared from this cyberspace for quite sometime, because I have been getting this serious morning nausea (still am) and yes, I am 4-month pregnant.

Life has not been the same since this pregnancy. I vomit most of the time, whether I am hungry or being too full. I eat 8 meals a day and still feel the hunger in my stomach most of the time (then I vomit again), I check my tummy first minute in the morning to see if it grows bigger, I put on weight in the fastest way and first time in my life, 5 Kg in just 3 months and still putting on without signs of slowing down. I used to check my weight in the beginning stage but now no more because I am too scared to look at the figure to know that I am putting on weight AGAIN in less than a week. ALL my pants are too small for me now, I just bought 3 pants in L size from Uniqlo, now they are unfit for me in just 1 month.

There are a number of downsides but there are also upsides too. I start my prenatal visits to doctors and be thrilled every time I see this little baby in my tummy, kicking up a fuss, tossing and turning around, sometime doing push-ups too. I wonder why I can’t feel anything yet. I look forward to the day when I finally know this is a boy or a girl (next visit is coming soon!) My husband has been more supportive to me, helping me in household chores because I am sensitive to most of the scents in the cleaning agents. I can choose whatever food I want to eat for lunch and dinner and nobody in the family dare to say no. I feel like I am a queen or princess in this family and I still have 6 more months of being in queen-status. Yes!

That’s how I live.

So last week, my husband said that he wanted to look this pig trotter to me since I would be having it for confinement, I gladly obliged! I love pig trotter in dark sweet vinegar! My mother used to cook this to me, I also tried cooking it a few times. Since I bought this book not long ago, I suggested that we tried the recipe inside this book as well.

You can follow the recipe exactly but we tweeted it slightly so that the flavours would not be too strong for us and we could still add in some more if needed be. It turned out that additional flavours were not needed. With reduced soy sauce and sugar, I find this appetising. Balanced with sweetness and saltiness, and with all those fats being scooped out, there is really nothing you need to worry about.

Recipe (tweeted version) Serve 4

1kg pig trotter, blanch it in the boiling water for 30 sec, clean and pluck out remaining hair on it, cut into smaller pieces.

2 hard boiled eggs, peeled

350 ml dark sweet vinegar

350 ml water ( if you cook in traditional way, use at least 1 litre of water for braising)

300g old ginger, smashed

1 whole garlic, cut 1 side to help its release of flagrant

3 Tbsp. of soy sauce (original recipe, 3.5 Tbsp.)

100g brown sugar (original recipe, 130g)

2 Tbsp. Sesame oil

2 Tbsp. oil

Method:

Heat sesame oil in the pressure cooker, add ginger and fry in low heat till slightly translucent and fragrant. Be patient in frying. Take out ginger, add oil, fry pig trotter in medium heat for about 5 min to let the trotters absorb gingery flavour in the oil.

When done, add vinegar and water (350ml each), ginger, whole garlic, brown sugar, soy sauce. Covered and pressured cooked for 30-35 min.

Uncovered, sieve out oil floating on top, add hard boiled eggs. Done!

P/S: If you cook in a conventional way, you have to cook with more water (double or triple) and longer time, about 1.5 hour – 2 hour.

According to this book, the secret from her grand aunty is that, you have to dry the old ginger under the hot sun first before using it for cooking. Alternatively, you can fry it in sesame oil in low heat to help releasing its fragrance. Given a choice, I will use Malaysia ginger 文东姜 instead of China old ginger next time because it gives out more flavours but I really don't know where to buy in Singapore. I must stock up more of Malaysia ginger 文东姜 next time back to Malaysia.