Trung Thit Heo Kho - Caramelised Braised Pork and Eggs

What better dish to have Dua Chua with than another one of my favourites. How did you guess?  It does go well with nuoc mam pha and is such a classic home-style, comfort-food meal. I remember mashing up the hard boiled egg in with my rice so there are delicious, soft, yellow pieces of yolk mixed in every bite. I also remember how my parents used to have one of these egg slicers that I loved watching. It was sad the day it broke. It was also sad the day we started cutting the eggs in two and eating only half an egg with a bowl of rice. I mean, it taught me to eat healthier, so I'm glad now, but at the time I just wanted to eat eggs.

You like that lighting? Very diffused and soft, eh? How are you enjoying that shoddy paper work in the back there? Yes, I had a craft session today. By myself. I used a lot of tape. I won't show you the final product but I must give credit to Sarah of simply cooked for teaching me how to make this lightbox.

Trung Thit Heo Kho
Printable Version

- 1 lb of Pork Butt, Shoulder, or Pork belly for a real fatty, delicious, traditional version. Cut into 1-2 inch cubes.
- 4-5 Eggs (Or more)
- 2 tbsp Fish Sauce
- 1 cup of coconut juice or 7up as a substitute
- Ground Pepper
- A pinch of salt.

Caramelized Sugar Water
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tbsp sugar

Preparation

Boil up some water to hard boil the eggs. Prepare the meat. Then prepare the caramelized sauce. Put a sauce pot on medium-high heat, add the sugar and water. Stir till sugar dissolves. Watch it carefully but after about 10 minutes, the sugar should brown, throw in the meat, and coat it well with the caramelized sauce. Pour in the coconut juice, add  and then fill the rest with water or juice (if you like it sweet) to cover the meat.  Bring to a boil, then let simmer and reduce for about an hour. Since I used 7up as my coconut juice, there was a lot of foam to skim, so take note of that. About 15 minutes before it's done, put the eggs in, coat them in the sauce. Keep them turning, they burn easily! Serve on rice with pickled mustard greens and nuoc mam pha!

I only cook with the highest quality of ingredients.

Love those eggs.

The caramelized sugar turned out better.

If I make this in the future, I'll use the leaner cuts of pork as my sauce was quite fatty. I love having generous spoonfuls of sauce over my rice but what little inkling of 'healthy habits' that I had remaining told me not to.

and i'm like, forget you