髮菜豬手, stewed pork fee with “hair veggie” has an irreplaceable place for Cantonese New Year dinner. Either we eat out or cook at home during Chinese New Year, we always try to include this dish. The pronunciation of the dish, 髮菜豬手, is phonetically similar to Cantonese pronunciation of 發財就手, making a fortune and hold it in hand. Such good meaning, besides the delicious, gelatin-rich pork feet texture, makes this dish very popular.
Usually we also add in dried oysters 蠔豉 for umami from the ocean taste; I did not have dried oysters when I cooked this time and personally did not really like the taste of it, so I did not add them it.
“Hair Veggie” is actually black moss, a type of algae. They usually come in dried form; before cooking, we put them in water, in which it will enlarge 2-3 times!! So evaluate how much you want to use before cooking this dish 😉
QUICK TAKEAWAYS
- boil pork feet for at least 5-10mins till no more foams (blood) are foaming help clean the pork feet
- after adding in original sauce and water to cover pork feet, taste the soup; it should be on the less salty end as water evaporates and will increase saltiness.
- save the water you put shiitake mushroom, peanuts and hair veggies in and add in the pot for cooking pork feet, adding in flavors
- do not add too much rock candies or Chenpi; their taste can be overpowering
RECIPE
Ingredients:
- 4lb pork feet
- 25g hair veggie (algae)
- full garlic, smash cloves
- slices of ginger
- scallion chunks
- 1-2 shallots, cut into chunks
- peanuts
- shiitake mushrooms
- rock candies 是冰糖不是糖果哈哈~
- few tbsp soy sauce
- few tbsp dark soy sauce
- rice wine
- few tbsp oyster sauce
- 1-2 tbsp Char Siu sauce (optional)
- 2-3 cubes of fermented bean curd 腐乳
- 1-2 slice Chenpi (dried mandarin skin)
- 2-3 dried red pepper
Step 0: put dry shiitake mushroom in water, 20-25g hair veggies in water and peanuts in water; remove peanut skin if needed (personal preference); KEEP THE WATER for later use.
Step 1: rest pork feet in cold water for at least 2-3 hours to get rid of blood
Step 2: discard cold water from Step 1, add in cold water, few tablespoons of rice wine, a few slices of ginger and start to cook pork feet till boiling for 10mins.
Step 3: rinse pork feet, clean any fur on pork skin, foam from boiling
Step 4: in a pan, add oil; after oil gets hot, add in scallion chunks, shallot chunks, ginger slices and garlic cloves, stir fry till fragrance appears.
Step 5: slice shiitake mushroom into slices, add shiitake mushrooms and peanuts into the pan, stir fry.
Step 6: add in sauces, stir fry all ingredients till rock candies melt and seeing brown sauce
- few tbsp soy sauce
- few tbsp dark soy sauce
- rice wine
- few tbsp oyster sauce
- 1-2 tbsp Char Siu sauce (optional)
- 2-3 cubes of fermented bean curd 腐乳
- 1-2 slice Chenpi (dried mandarin skin)
- 2-3 dried red pepper
Step 7: add in cleaned and rinsed pork feet, stir fry till the pork feet look browned by the sauce.
- step 6 and 7 can be reversed
Step 8: add in water you put shiitake mushrooms, peanuts and hair veggies in, add more water if needed till water level is just enough to cover pork feet. Cook at high heat till boil, let it boil for 10mins, turn heat down to medium or medium low for 1hour or longer. The longer it cooks, the softer meat is.
Step 9: add in hair veggie and cook for 5-10 extra minutes. If still too much sauce, can mix 1-2tbsp of corn starch in water, add in pot and stir till sauce thickens up.
READY TO SERVE!!!
