Braised Pork in Soy Sauce

I have tried many version of this dish since my childhoods. It is actually a popular Chinese Hokkien dish known as Tau Yue Bak. The Chinese version is always cooked with some boiled eggs and sometimes with some mushrooms. There are many ways to cook this dish.  Some like it with lighter sauce, some like thicker sauce and some even like it in spicy version. Actually there is no regulation on how it should be; the important thing is how the taste will satisfy your taste bud.

KadazanDusun modern cuisine is more influenced by the Chinese cuisine especially in pork dishes.  My mother's version for this dish is very simple in which the ingredients needed are only soy sauce, pork and some other simple ingredients.  As far as I remember, she never adds hard boiled egg to her braised pork.  

My kids doesn't really likes spices such as cinnamon stick and star anise, so  I made some modifications in my version by adding some type of ingredients that I feel fit and able to add more flavor and fragrance to the dish.  My version is slightly dry with a bit of oil out of the meat.   I'm also accustomed to not adding boiled eggs into it.

Ingredients:

1. 1kg pork shoulder
2. 2 whole bulbs of garlic
3. 1inc galangal (mashed)
4. 1tsp Chinese 5 spices powder
5. 5tbsp dark soy sauce
6. 5tbsp light soy sauce
7. Some rock sugar
8. 2 cups of water

Methods:

• Rinse and cut pork shoulder into bite size.
• Combine all ingredients (except water) in a pot. Marinate for a about 30 minutes.
• Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes or until the meat juice are slightly dried out.
• Pour in water and let to boil.
• Once the water boils, lower the heat and braise for 40 minutes or until the meat is cooked thoroughly and become tender. Stir occasionally to prevent it from burning.
• Serve with rice.

*** This dish is very flexible. You can adjust the taste if more light soy sauce or dark soy sauce are needed and add more water if you like it with more gravy ***