Description
Thai Moo Pa Lo is a traditional Thai dish made with braised pork belly, hardboiled eggs, and fried tofu, braised to perfection in a flavorful soy-based sauce infused with Chinese five-spice powder and aromatic herbs.
Ingredients
Scale
- 5-6 eggs, chicken or duck eggs are both excellent
- 1 1/2 pound pork belly, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1/4 cup cilantro stems, chopped into 1-inch pieces.
- 5 large cloves of garlic, leave whole for pounding into a paste.
- 1 teaspoon whole white peppercorns
- 5 cups water
- 3 oz cooked fried puffy tofu. Find these in the Asian market. Recipe coming soon!
- 1 teaspoon five-spice powder
- 3 star anise
- 5 whole cloves
- 2 cinnamon sticks (4-inch pieces)
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
- 1/3 cup palm sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Make the hardboiled eggs. Boil the eggs for 5 minutes or until the eggs are firm, peel them, and set them aside. They will be cooked further in the stew, so there's no need to cook it too long.
- Make the seasoning paste. Add garlic, cilantro stems, and white peppercorns to a mortar and pestle, and pound until you have a rough paste.
- Add the sliced pork belly to a soup pot and sear on medium-high heat until lightly golden brown. This searing step helps extract more flavors from the meat and secretes oil from the pork fat. Remove the pork pieces from the pot, set aside, and leave some pork oil to cook the paste next. *See the note below about pork belly fat.
- Add the paste to about 1 tablespoon of pork oil on medium heat and stir together until fragrant. 30-60 seconds only. Add the pork belly back in and stir until all the pieces are well coasted.
- Add the water, all the sauces, salt, palm sugar, five-spice powder, and whole spices. Bring to a gentle boil.
- Add the boiled eggs and fried tofu. Lower the heat to medium-low, cover it, and allow it to simmer for 40-45 minutes or until the pork belly becomes melt-in-your-mouth tender, absorbing all the rich flavors.
- Before turning the heat off, adjust the flavors to your liking with more sugar, five-spice powder, or soy sauce. That's it! Garnish and finish it off with a sprinkle of fresh coriander leaves.
Serve your Pork Pa Lo hot with Jasmine rice on the side, and add a spoonful at a time to allow it to soak up the savory broth. Yum, I'm drooling as I type this! (:
Notes
- Pork Belly fat. Searing the pork belly on higher heat helps with rendering the fat naturally. There are two benefits to this method. Save some of the fat for sauteeing the paste for this Palo recipe. If you have extra, save the fat for other recipes. Two, you can control the level of fat in your stew. When the browned pork belly is removed from the pot, place it on a plate with paper towels to help absorb and cut the fat.
- Adjust the spice levels according to your taste by tweaking the five-spice powder, star anise, cinnamon, and clove.
- If you don't have the whole spices, cinnamon, star anise, or cloves. Add a little extra five-spice powder to the broth. Start with 1/2 teaspoon and add more towards the end if needed.
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- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 45
- Category: Pork Recipes
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Thai