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Chinese Tau Yew Bak
Since my second sister came into town, we have been cooking up a storm. (Previously, we have made pineapple fried rice and salted fish bones curry.)
We have also been reminiscing our fond memories of our late parents—sharing the stories of our times with them and those days when we were growing up. Naturally, we talked about the delicious foods that my late mother used to cook for our family and the many dishes that she prepared which we missed dearly although the tastes still linger on our taste buds.
As my second sister is many years older than me, she had the opportunity to learn more about cooking from my late mother. We grew up in a big and poor family, so since she was 12 years old, she was tasked with housework and kitchen chores, including cooking for the whole family. Because of that, she has acquired and inherited most of our family recipes.
Tender Braised Pork Belly
A couple of days ago, we talked about making my mother’s braised pork belly in soy sauce, or tau yew bak (in Hokkien)—one of the many family recipes that my mother excelled in.
Her tau yew bak was legendary; the pork belly was always tender, juicy, and they are steeped in an intensely flavorful soy sauce. The taste was complex, sophisticated, addictive, and utterly delectable. There were always extras such as hard-boiled eggs, tofu, and sometimes, potatoes and mushrooms.
When my parents came to visit us in San Francisco 10 years ago in 2000, I managed to learn my mother’s tau yew bak recipe. I volunteered to make the dish, following the instructions that she had briefed me during her stay.
I added some cracked whole white peppercorn (her secret ingredient!) and slowly braised the pork belly over low heat. The result was rather satisfactory and adequate, in fact, it was delicious but it is never going to be as good as my mother’s version. My sister said that it lacked the taste of “mother,” which, unfortunately, something I could never ever recreate.
Here is my family recipe of braised pork belly in soy sauce or tau yew bak. It’s a savory dish that goes extremely well with steamed white rice, esspecially with a side of sambal belacan. I hope you like the recipe and get to try out one of the many great tastes of my childhood.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 611 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Braised Pork Belly in Soy Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb. pork belly, cut into small pieces
- 4 cups water
- 1 head garlic (lightly pounded with the back of a cleaver)
- 1 tablespoon white peppercorn (smashed and cracked)
- 5 hard-boiled eggs
- 8 oz. fried tofu/bean curd
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
- 1-2 tablespoons dark soy sauce (or until it reaches your desired color)
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat up a pot or preferably a big clay pot with 4 cups of water. Bring it to boil and then add in the garlic, pork belly, and cracked peppercorns.
- Bring the pork belly to boil before adding the hard-boiled eggs, fried tofu, soy sauce, sweet soy sauce and dark soy sauce.
- Lower the heat to medium and braise the pork for 30 minutes or so until the pork belly is is cooked through and become tender. Add salt to taste. Continue to simmer on the lowest heat for another 15-20 minutes. Dish out and serve hot with steamed white rice.
Video
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
So yum!
Thanks for sharing your mom’s recipe, Bee. Have been craving flavorful tau-yew-bak for a long time & this is just awesome :)
😊👍
Hi is this dish suitable for freezing?
You can freeze but you can just keep in the fridge.
Some stuff I think is worth trying to see if you can improve the taste:
-Add a cup of water once the liquid is first reduced from the simmering, and then once the liquid reduces a second time, then see if you like it better
-In the beginning of cooking, boil the pork in water until the pork scum are boiled out of the meat. Then dump the entire water and add new water and start the cooking process from there. This changes the flavor a bit, so it depends on your preference
I have followed your recipe exactly word for word.. and I love it! it’s delicious! and I love the simplicity of this recipe without having to put the Chinese 5 spice (am not so crazy about the taste).
My late grandma always make this dish and she use only pork belly and egg. We always have it with sambal belacan and rice. Unfortunately, I did not get to learn the recipe as I was so young that time but thank you for this recipe! Will try it soon. :)
hi,
1 pulp garlic means the whole garlic or just 1 clove? :)
1 head.
okay thanks. I suppose that’s make up of like 10 cloves or so. As i usually make with about 10 cloves of garlic :)
Yeah, that’s fine. I like a lot of garlic.
Thank you so much! :)
My grandma put star anise in the pot also! So delicious. One of my fav meals of my childhood.
Yes, you can put star anise but my family’s recipe doesn’t have star anise.
Hi Bee,
Tks for sharing this recipe! Can I replace the peppercorns with ginger instead? If so, how much ginger should there be? Also, I intend to replace the pork belly with chicken drummettes instead so I guess total cooking time will be much shorter am I right?
I won’t add ginger to this dish. Ginger is not supposed to be in this dish. You can skip peppercorns.
Hi Bee,
I’ve just tried out one version with peppercorns & the other with ginger & surprisingly, ginger actually tasted much better than peppercorns as it gives heat to the dish & enhances the flavour of the pork belly & sauce. In fact, my family actually prefers the ginger version than the peppercorn one so just thought of sharing with you on this :)
Hi Cheralyn, great that you like ginger, but I won’t add ginger personally. To me, ginger doesn’t belong in this dish.
Hi Bee, it’s really more of a personal taste then coz some people do not like ginger so perfectly fine to go with peppercorns. In any case, tks again for sharing! :)
Sure, this recipe is my late mother’s recipe so I wouldn’t change anything for myself. :)
As you say, taste preferences are personal. However to add more cultural context, I believe the Tau Yew Bak version with dark soya sauce, garlic and white pepper is more of a Hokkien/fujian provincial style tho maybe more popular in Malaysia and Singapore. The dishes with ginger And light soya sauce are usually more in the Cantonese Style and often called Red braised pork. Strictly speaking those are 2 different dishes much like western chili or bbq has regional variants.
Is extra firm tofu used in this dish?
Firm will be fine.
1 tablespoon of peppercorn is it spicy? Thanks.
You can cut it down if you like.
do we need to put the pot on when braising ?