Galangal (blue ginger) pork

It’s a beautiful Sunday and my friends come as usual. I’m working on my coloring book so I’m kind of lazy to prepare a complex meal (pardon me!). It’s a dish that I bet my friends could not remember when was the last time we had it. Here we have, pork cook in blue ginger.

Fun fact: if you are trying to ask any Vietnamese friend of yours about this dish, I’m quite sure the name “Blue Ginger Pork” or “Galangal pork” will make them confuse.There is a story again; and as usual I’m going to tell you one.

The original dish is ….(deep breath) made from dog meat and the truth is I personally against eating it. But it does not stop people from using similar method to cook another dish. Main ingredients are very Vietnamese. The main taste comes from galangal or blue ginger (not ginger) with a traditional fermented cooked rice and some herbal leaves.

By now, I bet your friend probably can recognize the dish. Vietnamese name is “giả cầy” . The dish name literally describes “pretending to be dog meat” while “giả” = pretend and “cầy” = viverridae or another way to indicate dog meat because eating viverridae nowadays seems not easy – trust me, it is another story though.

Anyway, despite how weird the story from its name is, I find this dish is nice and would like to introduce it to my friends. So I came up with the shorter name which I hope it would be easier to remember. It contains the main ingredient, galangal (blue ginger). And in this method, I replace the traditional ingredients by modern ones, which are really easy to find from Asian supermarket.

Vietnamese version: click here

Let’s head to the market and find the following:

1. Pork: choose any part that you like (bacon belly part – 3 layers type; shoulder butt, picnic shoulder – both are from front legs; or the part to make ham – from the legs behind; or even foot or hock). 

How much should you buy: normally 200gr per person (if you buy the meat part). Else, increase to 300gr (if you buy the hock or the foot)

The traditional dish use mainly foot, hock and the ham part. But I prefer bacon belly and shoulder part.

1. Galangal (blue ginger): it looks similar to ginger but it’s darker and harder. Make sure you don’t buy ginger instead even though they belong to the same family in science (guarantee different taste). Pick 1 medium chunk (about 150-200gr)
2. Yogurt (no sugar): 1 cup (140 gr) for 600 to 800 grams pork. Here, if you use one full cup for 600 grams meat, you will expect the taste will have slightly more sour.
3. To marinade: turmeric powder, dry onion (10 bulbs) and fish sauce.
4. Herbals to serve: spring onion and laksa leaf (look for Persicaria Odorata, Vietnamese coriander or praew leaf – depend on where you are). You can buy extra Thai basil leaves if it can be found.

 

Looks complicated? No worry. Let’s go back to our kitchen.

Marinade the meat:

This step can be prepared in advance in the evening before and store in an airtight box in a fridge.

1. Galangal: wash carefully to take out the dirt. Cut into thin slices (or even mince them)
2. Take out the dry onion’s coat (5 bulbs), wash and also cut into thin slices.
3. Wash the pork under running water; use kitchen towel to absorb the water. Cut the meat into big pieces (minimum 3 x 5 cm or ideally 4 x 7cm or even bigger size if you like. The bigger it is, the more time you need to cook).
4. Cover one hand in plastic glove and place pork, galangal, onion into a bow. Pour a tablespoon (~15 ml) of fish sauce and mix well.
5. Slowly sprinkle one tablespoon of turmeric powder to cover the whole meat (another tablespoon or more). Use your hand in plastic glove to make sure turmeric cover each and every piece. It will make your pork turns yellow.
6. Lastly, pour yogurt and mix well. Cover the bow and let it sit for 30 mins or more if you have more time.

 

To cook:

Slow cook, minimum 30-40 mins or up to 60 mins if the cutting is big. No worry, you don’t have to stick to the stove)

1. Cut 5 bulbs of dry onion into thin slices.
2. Fry the onion in 1-2 tablespoons cooking oil using a deep pot until it turns yellow (nice smell will come out and you’ll know for sure).
3. Put the prepared pork (everything) into the pot, mix well. Cover the pot and cook under smallest heat.
4. Mix the pork every 10-15 minutes until the meat is soft. Put extra water if needs.
5. Refine the taste that suits yours. Taste from galangal is really special (I can’t find a way to describe), following by the taste from turmeric and a little sour.

Tips: you can cook it early, let the whole thing sit inside the pot. This will actually help making the meat to be soft using its own heat inside the pot. Heat up when everyone is ready.

To serve: cut laksa leaves and spring onion into a very thin and small slices. Just before eating: turn off the heat, put them into the pot and mix well.

The dish is going really well with rice or rice noodle. 

Good luck and enjoy new taste! Tell me how do you think after trying, okay 😉

Bepnhachim