Did you realize that I changed the layout of my blog? I hope you did. It took me a long time to update the site because I changed my watermark on every picture due to many less-than-humans having broken the copyright laws, and I don’t want to waste my time with those low-life creatures. (But seriously, they still have to deal with my lawyer!) I also made the pictures even bigger, too.
That took a good two weeks, if not more, to do! I hope you enjoy them.
Also I had this very strong request from a gentleman in Germany who asked me for a recipe for the Thai style pork leg stew that his ex-wife had made for him. The most unfortunate thing is he’s living in Treseburg, a very small town in the mountains. That’s gave him a very narrow range of choices for the ingredients. Asian ingredients or Asian stores are about two hours drive from his home. He said his Thai ex-wife was probably the first Asian resident in his town!
That left me with quite a challenging task to come up with a pork stew recipe with ingredients that are available to him. Great. (I’m thankful he didn’t ask for a fresh curry paste recipe!) Anyhow, I do have that kind of recipe, but he needs to have a magical powder called “Chinese five spices,” or “Five spices powder.”
The Chinese five spices is as mysterious to non-Asians as well as Asians. It’s fine-ground, dried spices blended, same as garam marsala or the pizza seasoning. At this point if you don’t care to know what’s in the five spices powder, you can skip the next few paragraphs.
There are two main ingredients that always exist in every five spices powder.
1) Star Anise is the beautiful eight-point star shape spice that yields a very highly fragrant oil, some would say anise-like, but I think it’s so much stronger than anise, but as sweet.
2) Cinnamon. This becomes a complicated issue because the original is supposed to be the cassia cinnamon or Vietnamese Cinnamon, and not the true cinnamon or Cylon cinnamon. There are a lot of articles talking about the similarities and differences between these two. This is the one that I like the most “What is the difference between cinnamon and cassia?“. For the five spice powder, I would say either one would be okay.
There are three more spices, but each region, each country, each family down to each recipe have their own mix variation. I am going to list the potential spices here and you can try to mix and match on your own. I do use them alternately depending on the type of meat or the different dishes I’m cooking.
3) Coriander seeds
4) Sichuan pepper seeds
5) Cumin
6) Cardamom (white usually not the green or black)
7) Cloves
8) Fennel seeds (Foeniculum vulgare Mill)
9) Turmeric
10) Pepper, either white or black are fine.
Do we need all five? That might be a key question. The answer would be, not really. The strongest aroma would come from the first two and the rest only assist, but I normally choose until I get five spices because I like a balanced blend.
Can we put more than five? Of course, if you can blend them well and they’re not competing with each other.
Do we need to grind them to powder? It depends. You can use them the way they are, no need to grind them to powder in the stew, for sure. But, if you want to make a dry rub, rubbing a whole piece of cinnamon could be done but the fragrance wouldn’t stick to the meat. So, in that case you need to grind them together.
Back to my German reader. He has no idea what I’m talking about. So, he took a snapshot of a drawer full of bags and jars that he considered his “spice collection” to show me what he has. Man…I was so happy to see the picture of the star anise bag mixed in the pile, and the bonus was a bag of white cardamom.
Now that we’ve got the spices for his project, next I asked him about palm sugar and soy sauce. He actually had no idea what the heck I was talking about!…Errr…OK…at the least we got the spices, right?
You might want to know what the actual dish is that I’m talking about. It is the stew made with pork leg or pork hock with the bone in and skin on, slow cooked until the collagen are all unravels, the meat falls off the bone, and the skin is so tender it melts in your mouth. No, I am not done yet.
The tender pork leg stew is then poured over steamed jasmine rice and accompanied with a crunchy green vegetable boiled in the stew liquid, and pickled mustard greens also boiled in the stew liquid. The combination of soft, tender, salty sweet, melt in your mouth pork meat and skin contrasts with sour and hint of bitterness from the crunchy vegetable and is neutralized with fluffy fragrant rice and hard boiled egg. That’s heaven in your mouth.
A lot of Americans probably would be paying attention to this dish, even the ones that had visited Thailand. This is not the dish that would served in a restaurant inside an air conditioned mall. It would be available from a food cart in the open air market or on the street.
If it is in a restaurant, it will not be a cooled place with AC running, a cozy seating or a nice decor kind of restaurant. It would show up in a restaurant with simple tables, hard back chairs or stools, and the climate reliever would be just fans.
The advertising for both the carts and restaurants would be a big metal tub filled with dark brown liquid and many pieces of brown lumps of something, with the bone sticking out from the middle of each lump, submerged in a liquid that is emitting the wonderful aromas of oriental herbs and spices. In the same tub, or it might be in a separate one nearby, would piles of green vegetables, pickled vegetables, dark brown skin eggs and fried tofu. Some vendors might have brown shiitake mushrooms in the mix, too.
If you have been brave enough to order whatever mysterious meat that was in that tub (meat that very well could have been a hippopotamus fetus), the merchant would pick a little piece of that mysterious meat, chop it into bite size pieces, slap them on a plate of white rice, chop some green vegetables and some brown wrinkly pieces of something else that look like it use to be vegetables, too, and cut the dark egg-like piece in half before slapping them all over the same plate of rice.
You probably were relieved to see that once the dark egg like thing was cut in half, it really was an egg, yolk and all–at the least you can eat THAT! Whoever has done this, I admire your braveness. I even forgive you if you only ate the meat and discarded the skin. I also admire you if you finished the whole plate despite not knowing what kind of meat it was because you were too afraid to ask.
The meat is pork leg stew in five spices gravy, the green vegetables are Gai Lan or chinese broccoli that I use often in many other dishes such as Rad na, Pad See Ew or some other noodle dishes before. The wrinkly vegetable is pickled mustard that I used in Khao Soi and the egg is just an egg that has been submerged in the pork leg stew for a while.
>>>This dish is called “Khao Kha Moo” in Thai, Khao=rice, Kha=leg, Moo=pork. It’s just straight forward, rice with pork leg.<<<
This is a very, very fattening dish, as you can guess. The fat underneath the pig skin isn’t going to have less calories even after you cook it for a long time, I can guarantee you that much. However, I can also guarantee that you won’t be disappointed with the flavor of the dish, too.
This time I will give you just one recipe, the simple one that the gentleman in Treseburg can cook with less ingredients. I actually have more recipes I use to make this dish. Some of them even include chocolate as an ingredient. The result is not that much different, so don’t shun this recipe because I said it’s simple 😉 Try it first.
Ingredients
1 Pork leg with bone in and skin attached (You can get the front leg, which is smaller and has less fat, or the back leg which not only is a larger size but also more fat underneath the skin as well. I like the front leg more but it is harder to find. You have to go the Asian market to find it in the US but the European can easily find them at the butcher.)
Coca-Cola, Pepsi or any other brand, 2-3 liters
Salt 2-3 teaspoons
Garlic 6-7 cloves
One of these seasoning sauces as you can find, Maggi, soy sauce, Kikoman soy sauce, Gold label seasoning sauce; 1/4 cup
(Optional) Dried Shitake mushrooms 8 pieces
If you have the five spice powder, 2 tablespoons
If not, use these spices:
Cinnamon 1 whole stick
Star Anise 5-6 flowers
(Optional) White cardamom 7-8 pods with 3 leaves (Can be substituted with 4 cloves, 1/2 teaspoon cumin or 1 teaspoon coriander seeds; pick one)
Black Pepper 1 tablespoon
(Optional) Sichuan Pepper (Can be substituted with 4 cloves, 1/2 teaspoon cumin or 1 teaspoon coriander seeds; pick one)
Oil for frying, 1-2 cups
(Optional) Fried tofu
Four eggs
Pickled mustard
Gai lan
Cilantro
Steamed rice
Method:
1) Heat the oil in a large pan or pot. Set it over high heat and wait until the oil gets hot. Then drop the pork leg in it,
covering the pan with some type of shield so you don’t get the oil splash. You will have to wait about a minute, then you turn the leg so the other side gets fried, too.
We fry the leg not to cook it but to cook the skin. It also creates tiny pockets inside the skin where the oil or water got eliminated.
Those tiny pockets will be a good storage place for the sauce. Without it the skin will not taste or smell as wonderful. You will just bite into a piece of collagen and fat with very little flavor.
2) While you are frying the pork leg, put the spices in another small pan and roast them over medium low heat for just a few minutes.
3) You will need another pot about 3-4 inches taller than the whole pork leg itself, but not so much space around it. A stock pot would be perfect for this. You just want the pot to fit the leg with about one inch around and 3-6 inches above.
Put the oil in this pot, about two tablespoons, set it over medium high heat then smash all the garlic–you don’t need to chop them. Add the garlic to the hot oil and flip it all around a few times until it releases its aroma.
4) By now the pork leg skin should now be done frying. Lift it out of the wok and put it in the same pot as the garlic,
add all the roasted spices, cinnamon, star anise, black pepper, Sichuan pepper, white cardamom (or the spices of your choice), seasoning sauce and salt.
5) Add the soda to the pot until the level of liquid covers the whole leg. This is the reason why I said the pot should be tall. The soda is going to bubble as you pour it, and will even more once it reaches the boiling point.
Heat it on high or medium high, wait until it reaches a boil,
then simmer it at the low or medium low heat. You want it to bubble just slightly but not furiously. Simmer uncovered for another 3-5 hours. I did mine for 4.5 hours.
Each half hour you have to come back and turn the pork leg because after a while the level of liquid will reduce until the whole leg would no longer be fully submerged. You also have to make sure that the pork leg is evenly cooked by turning it occasionally.
You can use a slow cooker or pressure cooker, use according to the instructions. I don’t have either so I can’t advise on that at all.
6) Wash and soak the dried shiitake mushrooms until soft, cut the stems off and put them in the pot.
7) Add the fried tofu and push down into the liquid.
8) While you are waiting for the pork leg, boil the eggs in a separate pot. I boiled them for total 8 minutes, peeled and dropped the eggs in the pork leg pot after the pork leg had cooked for two hours.
9) The pork leg is done once it is tender and falling off the bone.
Now take the bone out. Sample the liquid to see if you like the taste. If you think it’s too sweet or too salty, then adjust it. This is not French cooking; you can add the condiments as you see fit. Also check to see if you like the consistency of the gravy. Do you like it this runny or do you prefer a thicker gravy?
Most of the time with just one pork leg without the pig feet (Ewwww…), you won’t get enough collagen to get a thick gravy. I used to cook with pig’s feet because my dad and my ex-husband both loved the Kagi (meaning pig’s feet, but in foreign language I don’t feel as if they’re that dirty…lol).
When I cook only the leg, I don’t get that thick gravy anymore, so I fix it with corn starch. I mix about a tablespoon or two of corn starch with a little water, may be 1/4 cup or more. I remove the leg from the pot and increase the heat until the gravy reaches a boil, add half of the starch water and stir constantly until it reaches a boil again, check consistency. If you want it thicker, add more starch water.
After you add the starch water, check the taste again. Usually the taste will not be as intense so you might need to adjust the taste again, too.
10) Rinse the mustard greens form the liquid that it was soaking in. Drop the whole head in the pot for five minutes and take it out.
11) Rinse the Chinese broccoli and cook it in the gravy. You only cook enough to eat; do not cook for the next meal.
12) Assemble, cut a piece of the pork leg out, slice it to a bite size, put them over white rice, cut all the vegetables to the bite size too and put them on the side. The eggs should be nice and dark. Cut the eggs in half, putting them on the side as well.
Scoop the mushrooms and the fried tofu out and add them to the plate. Pour the stew liquid over the pork leg and rice, then sprinkle chopped cilantro on top.
13) Of course, we eat this dish with “Nam Jim”. We’re Thai, the kings and queens of customized flavor for everyone. We never make just one size fit all when it comes to food. (We already did that to everything else, though.)
What kind of dipping sauce do we use for this dish? I’m sure some of you would guess, “something with chili in it”, right? Yes, you are right. Chili, garlic and vinegar. You mush a pod of chili and a clove of garlic then pour enough vinegar to cover them. If you have time to let it sit overnight, do it. If you don’t, then I recommend using the Indonesian or Malaysian “Sambal” sauce from a jar, mixed with vinegar.
People confirm that this adds the great contrast to the dish. It’s a can’t-miss mission but, as you know, I can’t eat chili so I skip this part and enjoy it with the pickled mustard and the Gai Lan, without any namjim.
NOTE To those cooking halal, this recipe is great with duck or even chicken as well.
ขาหมูต้มโค้กสูตรอย่างง่าย
เครื่องปรุง
ขาหมู 1 ขา
เกลือ 2-3 ชช
โค้ก หรือ เป๊บซี่ 2-3 ลิตร
กระเทียมจีนกลีบใหญ่ๆ 6-7 กลีบ
ซีอิ๊ว หรือ ซอสปรุงรส ตามแต่จะหาได้ 1/4 ถ้วย
ถ้ามีผงพะโล้ ใช้ผงพะโล้ 2 ชต
ถ้าไม่มีผงพะโล้ ใช้เครื่องปรุงเหล่านี้แทน
โป๊ยกั๊ก 5-6 ดอก
อบเชย 1 แท่ง
ชวงเจียหรือพริกหอม 1 ชช (ถ้าไม่มีให้เลือกเครื่องพะโล้ในนี้ไปแทนหนึ่งอย่าง: กานพลู 4 ดอก, ลูกผักชี 1 ชช, ยี่หร่า 1/2 ชช)
พริกไทยดำป่น 1 ชต
ลูกกระวานขาว 7-8 ลูก และใบกระวาน 3 ใบ (ถ้าไม่มีให้เลือกเครื่องพะโล้ในนี้ไปแทนหนึ่งอย่าง: กานพลู 4 ดอก, ลูกผักชี 1 ชช, ยี่หร่า 1/2 ชช)
น้ำมันสำหรับทอดขาหมู 1-2 ถ้วย
ไข่ต้ม สี่ฟอง
ผักกาดดองเปรี้ยว 1 ต้น
ผักคะน้า
ผักชี
ข้าวสวย
วิธีทำ
1) เอาน้ำมันใส่กระทะตั้งไฟแรงแบบจะทอดไข่เจียว แล้วไปหาฝาหม้อที่ใหญ่พอจะเอามาเป็นโล่ห์กันน้ำมันกระเด็นได้ น้ำมันร้อนแล้วค่อยใส่ขาหมูลงไป เอาฝาปิดเสียด้วย นอกจากจะชอบแฟชั่นแขน อก หรือพุงลายจุดจากน้ำมันกระเด็น ก็ค่อยยืนแอ่นอยู่หน้าเตาโดยไม่ต้องปิดฝาแล้วกัน ได้จุดแน่ๆ
ขาหมูมันอันใหญ่ จะใส่น้ำมันให้ท่วมแบบทอดทีเดียวได้นี่มันก็เปลืองน้ำมันใช่ไหมล่ะ เพราะใช้แล้วก็ทิ้ง เราก็เลยต้องเสี่ยงค่อยๆพลิกขาหมูเอา รอดูจนหนังด้านที่อยู่ในน้ำมันพองก่อนจะพลิกนะ ม่ายงั้นก็ต้องวนเวียนพลิกกันอยู่นั่นเอง ไม่จบ
เราทอดขาหมูเพื่อให้หนังมันพอง แล้วจะได้ดูดน้ำซอสอร่อยๆเข้าไปไว้ในหนัง ทำให้หนังนุ่มและอร่อย ไม่ทอดก็ได้ แต่อร่อยไม่เท่า
2) ระหว่างรอขาหมูหนังพอง เอากระทะก้นแบนอีกใบตั้งไฟอ่อน เอาเครื่องเทศมาคั่วเข้าให้หอม อันนี้ไม่ทำก็ได้ แต่ทำแล้วมันจะหอมกว่า อย่าเผลอลืมล่ะ คอยไปคนๆเขย่าๆด้วย
ถ้าใช้ผงพะโล้ไม่ต้องทำอันนี้ รอเอาผงพะโล้ผัดกะน้ำมันแทน
3) หาหม้อที่ขนาดครือๆกับขาหมู แต่สูงกว่าสักคืบมา เอาน้ำมัน(ก็น้ำมันที่ใช้ทอดหมูนั่นแหละ อย่าไปเทมาใหม่ เปลือง) ใส่ลงไปสักทัพพี ไฟกลางค่อนข้างแรง ตบกระเทียมพอให้แตกแล้วใส่ลงไปในน้ำมัน ตลบไปมาพอให้กระเทียมมันตกใจ ไม่ต้องให้เกรียม เอาแค่พอหอม (ตอนนี้คนที่ใช้ผงพะโล้ก็เทผงพะโล้ลงไปผัดได้แล้ว คนๆหน่อยก็พอ) หรี่ไฟลงด้วย
4) เอาขาหมูมาใส่ลงไปในหม้อ โยนๆเครื่องเทศลงไปด้วย
5) แล้วก็ราดน้ำโค้กลงไปในหม้อเลย มันจะฟูมาก ถ้าไม่เชื่อกันเอาหม้อเตี้ยๆมาใช้ก็เตรียมตัวเช็ดเตา ขัดหม้อได้เลย ใส่เอาแค่พอให้ท่วมขาหมูแล้วระดมเกลือและซอสปรุงรสใส่ลงไป ไม่ต้องชิม ไม่อร่อยหรอกตอนนี้ เร่งไฟอีกทีต้มไปจนเดือด แล้วหรี่ไฟให้อ่อน เคี่ยวไปเรื่อยๆสักสามสี่ชั่วโมงแล้วแต่ขนาดขาหมู หมูขาหน้าเคี่ยวสักสองชั่วโมงก็ได้แล้ว แต่หมูขาหลังนี่สิ เคี่ยวอย่างนาน อันนี้สี่ชั่วโมงครึ่งแน่ะ
คอยกลับขาหมูในหม้ออย่างน้อยๆทุกๆครึ่งชั่วโมง ไม่งั้นมันจะสุกไม่เสมอกันกลายเป็นขาหมู two tone
6) ใส่เห็ดหอมแช่น้ำและตัดก้านออกแล้วลงไปด้วย ไม่ชอบก็ไม่ต้องใส่ แต่ใส่แล้วน้ำซุปหอมมาก
7) เต้าหู้ทอด ใส่แล้วกดลงไปให้มันจมแล้วดูดน้ำซุปอร่อยๆเข้าไป
8) ระหว่างรอขาหมูเปื่อย ไปต้มไข่ ปอกเปลือกมาให้เรียบร้อย ถ้าชอบไข่ดำๆที่ไข่ขาวจะกรอบๆ ก็ระดมใส่ลงไปตอนเคี่ยวหมูไปสักชั่วโมงแล้วนะ ถ้าชอบไข่ขาวๆก็ไม่ต้อง รอใส่ตอนสุดท้ายนู่น
9) พอขาหมูได้ที่แล้ว คือหนังนุ่มละลายในปากดี เนื้อเปื่อยหลุดจากกระดูกแล้วก็ดึงกระดูกออกเสีย น้ำก็น่าจะงวดลงไปสักครึ่งได้นะ เช็ครสชาติดูว่าชอบไหม ถ้ายังไม่ชอบ ไม่ถูกใจก็เติมเกลือ ซีอิ๊ว น้ำตาลได้อีก
เช็คน้ำขาหมูในหม้อดูว่าชอบข้นหรือใสขนาดนี้ไหม สูตรนี้เราไม่ได้ใส่คากิ น้ำมันจะไม่ข้นคลั่กแบบขาหมูบางรัก เพราะมันมีคอลลาเจ็นไม่พอ (ใครจะใส่ก็ไม่ห้ามนะ มันทำให้น้ำข้น) ถ้าชอบน้ำใสๆนี่ก็เสร็จแล้วล่ะ ข้ามไปอ่านข้อสิบได้แล้ว
แต่ถ้าชอบน้ำข้นก็ไปละลายแป้งข้าวโพดกับน้ำ มาเติมลงไป อย่าใช้แป้งข้าวโพดเกินสองช้อนโต๊ะกับหม้อนี้ เราไม่ได้ต้มแป้งเปียกรสขาหมู ยั้งๆไว้ด้วย เริ่มแค่สักช้อนโต๊ะเดียวก็พอ ถ้ายังข้นไม่พอก็ค่อยเติมเพิ่มอีก เติมทุกครั้งก็คนอย่าให้แป้งเป็นก้อน แล้วรอจนเดือด เพื่อที่จะเช็ดความข้น เติมจนครบสองช้อนแล้วยังข้นไม่สะใจนี่ตัวใครตัวมันแล้วนะ เพราะเติมมากกว่านี้ไม่อร่อยแล้ว น่าจะเคี่ยวน้ำให้งวดลงมากกว่านะ
พอเติมแป้งแล้วก็ต้องเช็ครสชาติอีกทีเพราะรสมันจะอ่อนลง อาจจะต้องเติมเกลือน้ำตาลเพิ่มได้
10) เอาผักกาดดองล้างน้ำให้สะอาด ใส่ลงไปต้มสักห้านาที อันนี้ต้องทำนะ มันทำให้รสชาติอัลหล่อยม้ากกก ต้มครบเวลาแล้วเอาผักกาดดองขึ้นอย่าทิ้งไว้
11) ลวกผักคะน้าในน้ำขาหมูเลย ลวกแค่พอกินมื้อเดียวพอ อย่าลวกทิ้งๆไว้ ผักมันจะน่าเกลียดน่ากลัวประหนึ่งโดนแวมไพร์ดูดเลือดไป ถ้าจะลวกทีละเยอะๆ ไปลวกนอกหม้อขาหมูเลย พอผักสุกก็จับแช่น้ำเย็นมันจะได้เขียวนานๆ แต่จะจืดๆไม่มีรสชาติน้ำขาหมูหวานๆนะ
12) ตักข้าวใส่จาน น้ำลายจะยืดหยดออกมาแล้วเนี่ย ตัดขาหมูชิ้นใหญ่ออกมาจากหม้อ หั่นให้พอดีคำ จะกินเนื้อกินหนังก็เลือกเอาเอง หั่นผักดอง ผักคะน้าโปะ โรยผักชี ผ่าไข่ ควานเห็ดหอมมาใส่ เต้าหู้ด้วย ตัวอร่อยเลย กัดทีน้ำกระจาย แล้วเอาน้ำขาหมูราดข้าวอีกสักทัพพี
13) ลืมน้ำจิ้ม พริกเหลืองตำกับกระเทียม แช่ลงไปในน้ำส้ม (จริงๆควรจะทำทิ้งค้างคืนไว้ก่อน) หรือจะเอาง่ายๆ พริกแดงอินโดในขวดๆที่ชื่อแซมบัลโอเล็ก เอามาละลายน้ำส้มเข้าก็ใช้เป็นน้ำจิ้มได้นะ
ที่เล่ามาเนี่ย ยังไม่อร่อยสุดยอดหรอก อย่ากินหม้อนี้ให้หมดคืนนี้นะ รอพรุ่งนี้ก่อน อุ่นเสียรอบนึง มันจะอร่อยกว่าเมื่อวาน แล้วถ้ายังกินไม่หมด พรุ่งนี้จะอร่อยยิ่งกว่านี้เข้าไปอีก กินเนื้อหมดแล้วก็กรองน้ำเก็บไว้ แช่แข็งไว้ก็ได้ พอจะทำขาหมูกินอีกก็เอาออกมาใส่ลงไปในหม้อ ยิ่งทำหลายหนน้ำที่เหลือเก็บก็จะยิ่งเลิศ จนเคยมีคนขโมยออกไปจากตู้แช่แข็งเลยล่ะ (เกิดขึ้นเมื่อปี 2005 อย่าให้จับได้นะว่าใคร…คดีนี้ไม่มีหมดอายุความหรอก)
สูตรนี้ไม่ได้คิดเองค่ะ ปรับปรุงมาจากสูตรของคุณสมัคร สุนทรเวชที่เขียนลงในหนังสือ “กินไป บ่นไป” กินแล้วชอบก็ทำบุญไปให้แกด้วยนะคะ
ขอบคุณคุณหน่อย Nhoi Thong (เคยมีชื่อ screenname ชื่อ pastasiam ใน pantown คุณหน่อยแกไม่ยอมมาบอกชื่อจริงนามสกุลจริงเลยเอาแค่นี้ก่อน) เพราะคุณหน่อยสอนวิธีต้มไข่ ปอกไข่สวยๆให้ แล้วก็ต้องเลยไปขอบคุณพี่มล Sirimon Pangklin ที่เปิดห้องขนมปังและห้องแม่เจเจ ให้ได้เข้าไปรู้จักคุณหน่อยและคนเก่งๆในห้องอีกมากนะคะ
Thank for this new post. That sounds delicious.
I have never cooked with Coca-cola before. Sodas do not have a very healthy reputation and i am intrigued. 🙂 Any consideration about the soda type and its sugar content ? Diet coke, zero…
Also, when i braise meat i usually cook it in a cast iron pot in the oven with a closed lid. Would this work this way or you would advise to braise it in the cooker uncovered?
Thanks
Braised and stew is two different methods but this dish also can be braised.
Coke need to be full sugar not the diet. And I don’t think you can braised with coke because the liquid will not reduce enough to have a good sauce.
If you do not want to use coke and braised instead of stew. Use 1/4 cup dark soy sauce, 1/4 cup light soy sauce 1/4 cup Palm sugar 1/4 cup rice wine and add more water to make it reach the water level. Use the pickle mustard green and the mushroom to line the bottom of your cast iron. I’m estimating the amount you can also add more seasoning.
Braise is nice because you get more Maillard reaction.
Wow, there is a lot of detail and instruction here. I have 5 spice powder in my kitchen, but probably do not use it right. As for image theft, it seems to be really bad for high quality documentary photography. Another blogger who restores old Land Rovers had a really big problem with image theft. A lot of my stuff turns up elsewhere, especially portraits of women with large tattoos. Please visit if you have the time. -Ron
Ron, you have so many amazing pictures! I bet you have got a lot of image thieves too. Are you using any software or app to track them?
Thanks, Miranti, for another interesting post. I have no trouble using pig’s feet (often called pork trotters in the US, perhaps because that sounds better?), but I do hesitate using coca cola (or pepsi) for cooking because of all the sugar in it. The finished dish looks great!
Stefan the dish is cooked using a lot of sugar too. Coke add the color that normally would provided by the dark soy sauce and the sugar in it eliminate the need for Palm sugar but I see your point. Coke is using all white refine sugar. I might blog about the real recipe or even my own recipe that use chocolate instead of this later some day but if you really want to try I can email you the recipe because I trusted that you would be able to find the ingredients.
Mouthwatering! 🙂
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
Thanks 🙂
Great images. Great recipe. Like the new watermark. I know the problem. 😊
Mira, I love your website, the humor and the detailed instructions AND your excellent photography. But I’m curious. Why watermarks? It adds NO legal protection, it can distract, it can be easily deleted, so why?
It’s discourage people from stealing. I’m telling them that I’m serious about protecting my rights. Why you said it’s add legal no legal protection? It does, in an argument level. Since it’s not that easy to eliminate this time (the old one somebody cut them out) so there will be easier to proof the case.
Since I added them, the stealing rate had dropped drastically. People who steal the most are not even from Thailand but they’re from Indonesia and so hard to argue with them. Their country isn’t honor the copyright law.
I’m glad the stealing rate has dropped; watermarks often do deter amateurs since it defaces the picture, so who wants it, plus it show you’re “serious”, but technically it does NOT offer you any additional legal benefits. Also it’s simple to circumvent if you know what to do. It’s easy to prove copyright. Is it your picture? Did they use it, in particular for a commercial purpose? Then you have copyright infringement. As for Indonesia, it does in general follow our copyright law, especially after recent revisions to their law. That said, pursuing the matter, unless a large company used your picture for advertising purposes would be more trouble than it’s worth. Good luck and best wishes.
Thanks…
The one steal to use for commercial is Thailand, easy for me to track them down. Indonesian used it for class, which is considered commercial but theoretically they should follow US copyright law but wait until you had your picture stolen and you have to battle with them. You would know they’re really NOT and they don’t really care. Watermark is not working here in the US but once you are in the argument with international theft it does helps a lot. They can’t bribe the judge about their only copy of the shot that still have the trace of my mark. Before once they claimed theirs versus my fifty shots of the same set up the judge still dismiss the case! Believe it or not.
Wow! How did you find out about the people who stole your pictures? I have issues people/bloggers stealing my original recipes. And they live here in the United States. It amazes me how brazen they are. They have no shame at all. They blog about my recipes and claimed it’s theirs. I’ve seen most of my recipes being blogged and no mention of my blog or link back to the original posts. So, I am trying not to blog about original recipes as much as possible and just adapt recipes and blog about them. 🙁
Anyway, this leg stew looks so tasty, tender and juicy. I like how detailed and how vivid your pictures are. I also love the way you arrange the food on the plate. It makes me hungry just looking at it. 😀
Cooking with Coca-cola reminds me of the roasted pork back home. It’s used to brighten the color of the pork’s skin as well as flavor it. It was really good!
Wow…I have to dig your comment out of the junk bin. I think the WordPress engine doesn’t like the mark up language in your comment.
To answer the question about images theft, I’m using Google. I just copy my pictures’ URL post in Google and ask it to search the similar images.
Thanks for the compliment. I’m glad that you like it. Making you want to eat it is kinda make you want to follow the recipes 😉
Looking at your plate is making me drool! 😉
Superb!!
All of your pictures make my mouth watery…!
I normally don’t write anything on a cooking website, but this one, I must leave a message to you. Thank you so much for your time writing these recipes, I deeply appreciate. I have been spending hours looking online for authentic Thai dish since I’m extremely love Thai food. I’m so glad that I found your website. All the recipes are so detail described I am so happy that I can make a very good Thai dish now without living in Thailand. Thank you so so much for your kindness and I hope you all the BEST!
I’m glad that you can cook your own authentic Thai food at home too. 🙂 Happy
How to make a kind of Soda, Cola, Pepsi and or Beer, It can make softly a meats, especially it become dark color from
white pig leg or pig le. About use a chocolate or Milo, it is the best way for the flavoring.
It’s one of the way. Also chocolate add the umami taste to the dish as well.