Tau Yew Bak (Braised Pork in Soy Sauce)
A super easy recipe to make for a weekday dinner after work, this braised pork dish is a delicious comfort food that doesn't require much prep time.
Prep Time10 minutes mins
Cook Time40 minutes mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese, Nyonya, peranakan, singaporean
Servings: 2 people (with rice and other dishes)
Calories: 456kcal
- 0.55 lb pork (250g) (8.81 oz) Cut the pork into small pieces, about twice the thickness of your little finger Traditionally pork belly but I find that too oily. You can mix with pork shoulder butt for a great combination of fat and lean meat or use 100% pork butt.
- 1½ Tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1½ Tablespoon dark soy sauce If you like your food on the sweeter side, you can use kicap manis instead of dark soy sauce.
- ¼ T 5 spice powder Substitute: spices such as cinnamon stick, star anise and peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon white granulated sugar or to taste.
- Oil About 1 Tablespoon or to taste. Substitute: lard
- 1 bulb garlic peeled and minced
- Water Enough to just about cover the meat in the pan. Substitute: pork stock
- Salt to taste
- white granulated sugar optional seasoning, to taste Substitute: rock sugar
- Hard boiled eggs/ firm tofu/ cooked peanuts/ dried shiitake mushrooms/ carrots Optional
- Coriander leaves Optional garnish, rough chop
- Sambal belacan chilli Optional
15 minutes before you want to cook, add both soy sauces, the white sugar and the 5-spice powder to the pork. Mix well and leave covered on the counter to come to room temperature. In the meantime, mince up your garlic.
Heat your pot over low-medium heat, then add some vegetable oil or lard. When the oil is shimmering, add the garlic and stir fry till fragrant. Tip: If you have whole spices such as star anise, white peppercorns and cassia cinnamon, you can crush them then add and stir fry in the oil for a more aromatic dish. Increase the heat to medium then add the pork and lightly brown the pieces. It should caramelise nicely thanks to the sugar and dark soy added!Note: Reduce the heat to low if using pork belly. If not, your dish will be super oily! Add enough water (or pork stock) to cover the pork then cover and simmer for 40-60 minutes, or till the pork is soft, cooked and you get a nice syrupy sauce. Remember to top up the water if the pan is drying out!Tip: Don't add too much water at first or you may be braising for ever. You may also need to top up some extra water if your pan gets dry. If including hard boiled eggs/ tofu/ carrots to bulk up the dish, add them in during the last 10-15 minutes of cooking. (You can actually add the other ingredients earlier if you want their flavour to be more concentrated, however this will give you overcooked eggs with the tell-tale green rim around the powdery yolks)
At the same time, taste and season the stew (salt and maybe more sugar- will depend on the dark soy you use) accordingly to taste then serve with a bowl of piping hot white rice.
Here's a recipe for homemade 5-spice powder
If adding dried shiitake mushrooms to your loh bak, add 1 or 2 pieces at the most as the mushroom flavour can overpower the other ingredients.
Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its accuracy.
Calories: 456kcal | Carbohydrates: 98g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 1031mg | Potassium: 896mg | Fiber: 14g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 3286IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 1252mg | Iron: 45mg