Vietnamese braised pork belly and hard boiled eggs in coconut juice (Thit Heo Kho Trung)

My mom would make this dish often and uses simple ingredients. I practically grew up eating this dish but never took the time to try to make it myself.


Ingredients

• 1 lb pork belly, chopped into 2-3cm cubes
• ~ 1.5 cups of coconut juice (from 1 young coconuts)
• 2 small red chillies, deseeded
• 4 whole hard boiled eggs, shelled
• fish sauce (1 1/2 tablespoons)
• light soy sauce (3/4 tablespoons)
• dark soy sauce (1 tablespoons)
• 3/4 tablespoons coconut sugar
• salt and pepper to taste


Method

Par-boil the pork – put the pork pieces into a pot of boiling water and simmer for 1-2 minutes until partially cooked. Rinse pork under cold running water and drain well.

Add the coconut juice, chillies and 1 tablespoon of fish sauce into a pot and bring to a simmer. Then add in the pieces of pork.

(1) Bring to a boil and then simmer on low heat for around an hour, stirring occassionally or pressure cook for 10 minutes

(2) Then add in light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce. Simmer on low heat for another hour, stirring occassionally or pressure cook for 10 minutes.

(3) Test the flavour and adjust with fish sauce or sugar if required and add in a pinch of salt to balance. Add in the hard boiled eggs and simmer for another 30-45 minutes to flavour the eggs and for the sauce to reduce.

Note: I pressure cooked this dish for a total of 20 minutes, divided into two 10 minute periods. The last step of cooking does not require pressure cooking.