The very first dish we had after we arrived in Thailand was Khao Kha Mu. We obtained it in Chiang Mai close to the north gate of the outdated metropolis at a stand that’s well-known for a girl with a cowboy hat, though she wasn’t there after we have been. The place appeared to be fashionable with each vacationers and locals, though the locals have been all getting takeout. There have been two guided meals stall excursions after we have been there. It was tender braised pork leg in a candy soy-flavored gravy, served with rice and a hard-boiled egg, pickled mustard greens, and a spicy vinegar sauce on the facet.
They have been busy deboning and chopping up the meat.
For takeout all the pieces was bagged individually.
Again dwelling I checked out varied recipes on-line, similar to Sizzling Thai Kitchen, Merely Suwanee, and ThaiCookbook.TV. I seen that each one of those recipes served the dish with shii take mushrooms and contemporary greens, which weren’t included within the model I had in Thailand. After all I couldn’t resist to arrange a sous vide model to make sure completely cooked meat, but additionally to maintain extra taste within the meat (slightly than transferring a lot of the meat taste into the gravy). This turned out nice and is fantastic as easy consolation meals.
Components
Serves 4
- 1.3 kilos (3 lbs) pork hock with rind
- 2 Tbsp gentle soy sauce (ideally Thai)
- 1 Tbsp darkish soy sauce (ideally Thai)
- 2 Tbsp oyster sauce (ideally Thai)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 38 grams (3 Tbsp) palm sugar, minced
- 3 to 4 coriander roots (substitute with coriander stems or omit if not obtainable), chopped
- 2 to three garlic cloves, chopped
- 1/2 tsp white peppercorns
- 5 slices galangal, chopped
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 star anise
- 1 tsp 5 spice powder
- 8 dried shii take mushrooms
- vegetable oil
For the sauce
- 2 coriander roots
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 inexperienced chillies (I used 1 jalapeño and 1 rawit)
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) distilled white vinegar
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
To serve
- 400 grams (.9 lbs) contemporary bok choy or different leafy greens
- 400 grams (.9 lbs) drained and pickled mustard greens, selfmade or store-bought
- 4 medium boiled eggs
- 400 grams (2 cups) jasmin rice
- 8 shii take mushrooms (contemporary or from above)
- meat, pores and skin, and gravy from above
Directions
Ensure that to burn away any hair on the pork hocks in case your butcher hasn’t already carried out so.
Rub the pork hocks with vegetable oil and brown them in 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok on all sides.
Permit the seared pork hocks to chill off. Don’t discard the oil within the wok.
Chop 38 grams of palm sugar.
Chop 3 to 4 coriander roots, 2 to three garlic cloves, and 5 slices galangal. Put them in a mortar, along with 1/2 tsp white peppercorns.
Use a pestle to pound this into a rough paste.
Add the paste to the wok, along with 1 cinnamon stick and 1 star anise. Stir fry for a minute, including a bit extra vegetable oil if wanted.
Flip off the warmth, and add 2 Tbsp gentle soy sauce, 1 Tbsp darkish soy sauce, 2 Tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp 5 spice powder, 1/2 tsp desk salt, and the minced palm sugar.
Stir till all the pieces has been blended properly and the sugar has melted, utilizing a bit of warmth as wanted. Permit this to chill off.
Vacuum seal the pork hocks with the spice combination. If you don’t personal a vacuum machine with a chamber, it might be simpler to make use of a ziplock bag and the water displacement methodology.
Permit the pork hocks to marinate within the fridge in a single day, then cook dinner them sous vide for twenty-four hours at 74C/165F, or 48 hours at 68C/155F. In case you are in a rush, you possibly can skip the marinating step and go for the 24 hours at 74C/165F.
Pour the liquid from the bag (together with the cinnamon stick and star anise) right into a stockpot or strain cooker. Then take the meat out of the bag, and permit it to chill a bit so that you gained’t burn your fingers.
Separate the good meat from the pores and skin, bones, fats, and anything that doesn’t appear like good pink meat.
Reserve the meat, and place all the pieces else into the inventory pot or strain cooker.
Add 1 litre (4 cups) of water, and eight dried shii take mushrooms. The water needs to be sufficient to barely cowl all the pieces. Add a bit extra if wanted.
Convey to strain and strain cook dinner for 1.5 hours, or cowl, convey to a boil, and simmer for 3 hours. It will extrac the flavour and gelatin from the pores and skin, bones, spices, and shii take mushrooms, to get a terrific gravy.
Within the meantime, chop the good meat, and refrigerate it.
Sieve the gravy.
Reserve the pores and skin and shii take mushrooms, and discard the remaining solids.
To make the sauce, chop 2 coriander roots, 2 garlic cloves, and 1 chillies.
Put them in mortar along with 1/2 teaspoon sugar and 1/8 teaspoon salt, then pound till fairly easy.
Add 60 ml of white distilled vinegar and stir properly.
Permit the flavour of the sauce to develop for at the least half an hour (or longer, within the fridge).
Every little thing up so far may be ready prematurely.
To complete the dish, put together all of the components.
- Boil the eggs for about 8 minutes, then chill them in chilly water, and peel them.
- Steam the jasmin rice.
- Separate the mustard greens into leaves and stalks.
- Separate the bok choy into leaves and stalks. Chop the leaves very coarsely and the stalks into smaller items.
- Slice the shii take mushrooms (contemporary or from the gravy), or depart them entire when you like.
Convey the inventory to a boil, then scale back the warmth to a simmer.
Prepare dinner the mustard greens, and bok choy within the gravy, lined, till they’re tender to your liking. The stems will take longer (20 minutes for mustard greens, 10 minutes for bok choy) then the leaves (simply a few minutes).
If you wish to serve all the pieces individually like I did, cook dinner them one after the other, take them out with a strainer, and reheat them within the microwave simply earlier than serving.
Prepare dinner the peeled eggs for about 10 minutes on the finish (don’t reheat them in a microwave).
Add the (good) meat final, and don’t permit the gravy to boil, as that will dry out the meat (and destroy the juiciness you so fastidiously maintained utilizing sous vide to cook dinner the meat).
Serve the meat, pores and skin, mustard greens, bok choy, and egg with the rice on preheated plates, and serve the sauce on the facet.
Wine pairing
Thai meals will not be ideally suited to pair wine with, however it’s potential to seek out wines that may go properly with this dish. This could be a white wine with some physique and a little bit of residual sugar, like a Pinot Gris from Alsace or a Viognier from the Rhône Valley. We loved it with an nearly dry Pedro Ximénez (so not the darkish brown syrupy dessert wine, though made out of the identical grape selection). For a purple it shouldn’t be tannic and a bit jammy, like a riper fashion Californian Pinot Noir or an Italian purple made with appassimento (grapes dried earlier than wine making).
