Third iteration of this dish, which I first made about two decades ago. Still cooking as of this writing, but I think it's going well. An IG post will prove it. I used to call this thit heo kho, but apparently that is a more general term for braised pork stew. This is the more precise name, which refers to this dish cooked in caramel, fish sauce and coconut water.
INGREDIENTS
1kg pork belly, cubed (adobo cut)
1 cup sugar (brown or muscovado preferred)
3/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup water
1 onion, minced
1 garlic, minced
500mL coconut water
6 hard-boiled eggs
1. Heat the sugar in a large pot over low heat, stirring often to prevent burning. This will take a while and a bit of effort, but trust the process and the sugar will eventually turn into a syrupy caramel (try not to burn the thing).
2. Mix the fish sauce and water and put it into the pot. This will cause your hard-worked syrup to solidify into a salty, fishy clump of candy, but trust the proccess. Continue cooking the "candy" into the fish sauce liquid until it is all dissolved.
3. Put the onion and garlic into the pot and cook until it's aromatic. Some recipes call for cinnamon and star anise at this point, but I like to keep it simple.
4. Now this is a tip from Tra's mom: turn off the heat, put the pork into the pot and let it marinate for 30 minutes. It will cool down, yes, but that's the point.
5. Pour in the coconut water and simmer over low to medium heat for about 30-40 minutes,
6. In the last 5-ish minutes of simmering, add the hard-boiled eggs.
Serve with steamed rice and greens.
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