I love this dish though traditionally cooked for women during their post natal confinement, I have made adjustment to the amount of ginger so it’s great for anyone, anytime.
I remember cooking this for a friend’s wife after she had given birth and used 1kg of old ginger in this stew. It is believed to warm the womb and remove wind. Pig trotters are packed-full of collagen too.
I buy the front trotter and my butcher who gives the trotter a good shave and chops the trotter into good size chunks. Excellent service, I call this!
Preparation may take time but the cooking is simple. I will wash the pieces in water, to remove all the bone chips and residual blood. This I do many times until the all bone chips and loose bones are removed and the water is almost clear.
Then I blanch the trotter in hot water, at least twice to further clean it. You could boil it over the fire but I have found just pouring hot water over the pieces is good enough.
Drain the water and set trotter aside. We are now ready to cook.
Ingredients
1 pig trotter, front hock, chopped and prepared as mentioned above.
1 bottle/750ml black rice vinegar. (I use Chan Kong Thye – bulldog pink label black sweet rice vinegar)
1500ml water
1 cup black sugar/brown sugar
Half kg or less old ginger. Washed, peeled and bruised, (I use a pestle to bruise the ginger).
4 tabsp sesame oil
Method
1. in a large non-metal pot (I use a Pyrex casserole. You could use a large clay pot), pour sesame oil to heat over medium fire. Once oil is slightly smoking, put ginger to fry for about 2-3 minutes.
2. Next, put in trotters, vinegar, water, sugar and ginger. Bring to boil covered, then lower the fire and allow to stew for at least 2 hours or until trotters are tender. Then turn off fire.
3. I recommend that you leave overnight and eat only the next day so as to allow flavours to develop. I would heat contents to a boil then leave it over the stove. Then reheat again the following day, especially before serving.
Note:
You might want to put in hard boiled eggs. This can be added with the trotters after an hour into the stewing.
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