Still Feeling Peckish

My grandfather was a typical Chinese man who loved his pork. One of my clearest memories as a child was of him enjoying his braised pork belly or pig trotter stews at our weekly Saturday night family dinners. My dad’s family lived in Malaysia and we used to faithfully brave the Causeway traffic every Saturday to visit my grandparents who lived together with my aunts in Johor Bahru. In those days I remember our car didn’t have an air conditioner and it was always a sweaty journey crossing the immigration check point to Malaysia.

I think we never grumbled as children. We took these weekly forays as very much part of life. And when we got there we were like little monkeys let loose and would romp around the garden and through the house. The reason why I remember the pork belly and pork trotter dishes is because somehow I didn’t quite like the oily richness of the dishes and started to avoid them. But how my grandfather loved his pork – he slurped up every dripping sliver of fat…oblivious to medical concerns to rein in his fat consumption. And he lived into his 90s and it was not the cholesterol that killed him but a congenital aortic stenosis or heart valve defect that he had had for many years.

Years on I married a man who doesn’t really eat pork, but we will surreptitiously make our pork dishes when he’s busy working and not in for dinner. Kid#2 loves pork belly buns. This is one of her must haves when we go to Chinese restaurants. I decided to try this dish at home in the Instant Pot. Most recipes call for gentle simmering of the pork belly for several hours to get the melt-in-the-mouth textures, but I decided to try pressure-cooking to see if this could produce equivalent results. In the end the texture and softness of the pork belly was a clear pass. I felt however that the colour of the pork was lighter than a typical slow braise, which was why I ended the cook with a short period of simmering the cut pieces of pork belly.

I used the pot-in-pot method of cooking here which cuts down the volume of fluid needed and hopefully a concentration of the aromatic flavours in a smaller volume. I think direct cooking without an extra inner pot may still be possible although the sugar content may scorch the base of the pot. I’m the end I was just happy that I finally got to use the nifty little pot in pot (it has handles too for easy lifting out of the Instant Pot). Some months back I had found this solitary piece in Robinsons department store and although it didn’t have a price tag, I really really wanted it because I knew it was a perfect Instant Pot insert. I chased down a sales lady who patiently went through the inventory listing to find out the price of the pot. In the end, she sent me off shopping and promised to call me back when she got the list price, and that she did, about 15-20 minutes later. It was well worth the wait as it fit snugly into the inner pot of my Instant Pot. I am deeply grateful for the lady’s determined search, which is why I still go back to Robinsons on and off for the odd piece of kitchenware. The staff are really good at helping.

Metal insert for inner pot. A perfect fit for the pork belly.

So at the end of the day I don’t think I am an expert at doing braised pork belly, but at least I can get a decent homemade version. I suspect grandpa would have approved.