Hi, I'm KP Kwan from Taste of Asian food. I
want to show you how to make a traditional pork knuckle dish that is very popular during
Chinese New Year because it symbolizes prosperity and good luck. You may have tried my
Cantonese-style pork knuckle recipes, which I published last year. Today I would like to
do something different with different ingredients and seasonings. This recipe will include some
Sichuan peppercorns, some chili peppers, and different sets of spices. So let's get started.
Here are the steps. This is a pork knuckle which I have cleaned with plenty of water and removed
any debris and blood. Take a closer look at the pork knuckle. If you spot any hairs, you can
remove them by using a tweezer or burn them with a blow torch. After that, I'm going to
put this pork knuckle in a large pot of water. Add some ginger slices and
some spring onion to the water. Some rice wine. Now we put the pork knuckle into the water and
make sure the water is sufficient to submerge it. Then blanch the pork knuckle
for about five minutes. The rice wine, spring onion, and ginger
will help to remove the porky smell, the unwanted porky smell from the pork knuckle. Okay. Now let's remove the
pork knuckle from the pot. Then put it in a colander to drain away the
water. This is a braised pork knuckle recipe, and I have two important pre-steps
to be taken. The first step is to blanch it with water to remove the porky smell.
The second step that I'm going to do it now is to fry the pork knuckle before braising it.
The purpose is to make it more aromatic. Next, I transfer the pork knuckle onto
a plate and add some dark soy sauce. Dark soy sauce serves two purposes. First, it darkens the color so that it looks more
visually appealing. Secondly, dark soy sauce contains sugar which helps to caramelize the
surface when I deep fry the pork knuckle. Look at the color. It is now much better.
Heat some oil in a wok and once it is heated, I'm going to put a pork knuckle into the wok. You will expect the oil to start to splatter, so make sure that you get
ready a wok cover to cover it. Turn over to the other side to do the same. I'm going to fry this side a little bit longer. Yeah, now both sides are nicely browned. Look at it. Now let's remove it
from the wok and set it aside. The spices I use in this recipe are bay
leaves, cinnamon, star anise, and cloves; this is dried chili, white peppercorn, Sichuan
peppercorn, and dry tangerine peel. Let's put all the spices into a small cloth bag so that it
is easier to remove them after braising the pork. Heat some oil in a pan, and then add the garlic,
ginger, and the white section of the spring onion. Stir-fry all these aromatic until it's fragrant. Then transfer it into a stock pot. Place a pork knuckle into the pot. Add sufficient water enough to submerge the pork. Now add the spices, rock sugar, light soy sauce, a bit of dark soy sauce, some rice wine. Once it is boiling, reduce the heat and braise
the pork over a bare simmering temperature. It will take about two to three hours. During this process, we have to turn the pork
knuckle over from time to time to ensure that it's cooked evenly on both sides. You have
the option to cover and not to cover it. Since there's still lots of water, so I'll leave
it as it is, and I will only cover it later. This is the pork knuckle after about two
and a half hours. Now let's do a taste test. It's not salty enough, so I
would like to add some light soy sauce and dark soy sauce instead of salt. I've braised the pork knuckle for three
hours, and it's now tender and soft. Let's remove it from the braising liquid. Then pour the braising liquid through a wire
mesh strainer to catch all the spices and herbs. Now bring it to a boil over medium to high
heat. The goal is to reduce it to become gravy. The volume has much reduced by now. So
I'm going to use this one to make gravy. Before that, let's do one
last round of taste tests. It's quite there, but I prefer to
add just a little bit more sugar and a little bit of salt. The amount of this liquid is still a lot, so
I'm not going to use it all to make the gravy. Instead, I'll just take part
of it to make the gravy. Yeah, that should be enough. I thicken it with some cornstarch slurry Okay. Arrange the pork knuckle on the serving plate with
some vegetables and then drizzle the sauce on it. It's ready to serve That's how to make Chinese-style braised pork
knuckles. It's a perfect dish for Chinese New Year because it symbolizes prosperity and good luck.
If you want to get the recipe, I've included it in the description below the video. Don't forget
to subscribe, tap the notification bell, and give me a thumbs up. I'll take this opportunity to wish
everyone a happy Chinese New Year. See you then.
