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Moo Palo, Thai Five Spiced Braised Pork Belly, Quail Eggs and Pickles
Recipe by Nat Thaipun
Try this Moo Palo with five spiced braised pork belly, quail eggs and pickles
- Steps
- Ingredients
Steps
- Preheat the oven to 200°C fan forced. Line a tray with baking paper.
- Crush cinnamon sticks just until they break into smaller pieces, then add them to a dry fry pan along with star anise, cloves, coriander seeds & Sichuan peppercorns. Toast over medium high heat, stirring constantly until the coriander seeds start to darken slightly. Transfer spices to the pressure cooker with coriander roots and stems.
- In the same pan add oil on high heat. Toss pork belly in ½ teaspoon salt, then sear until browned on at least two sides. Transfer pork belly and any excess fat collected into the pressure cooker.
- On a chopping board place the thin layer pork belly skin and score every 3mm. Pat dry, then brush with oil and rub a generous amount of salt onto the skin. Massage to ensure the salt gets into the scored parts of the skin. Flatten out and place onto a lined baking tray. Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly and golden. Allow to cool before breaking into small pieces.
- In the same pan again, melt the palm sugar over medium high heat. Once melted, keep stirring until it turns a dark caramel colour. Immediately, add half of the stock to stop the cooking process - the sugar will harden. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy, white pepper, and garlic. When the sugar melts again, immediately transfer sauce into the pressure cooker. Add the remaining stock and set the pressure cooker on high for 20 minutes. When finished, release pressure immediately.
- Remove the inner pot from the pressure cooker and ladle out the delicate pieces of pork. Set aside in a bowl. Strain a few ladles of the stock through a sieve and mesh cloth to remove the cinnamon bark. Transfer 250ml of broth into a wide saucepan. Simmer on a low/medium heat for 10 minutes until reduced slightly. Season to taste - the broth shouldn't be too salty or too sweet.
- Rinse rice under cold water at least 3 times or until the water starts to run clear. Add to a medium saucepan and add water - the water needs to come up to ¾ of the first knuckle of your middle finger. Put the lid on and cook on a medium high heat. Lower heat when it starts to boil and bubbles form. Do not open the lid. Allow to simmer for about 4 minutes and then turn down to the lowest setting. This allows the rice to steam and become fluffy. You should start to see steam holes form in the rice, this means your rice is nearly done! It should take a total of 12 minutes for the rice to be finished Do not open the lid. Allow to sit until required.
- To prepare the Pickles, combine water, vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan on a low heat, until sugar and salt dissolves. Peel the cucumber, remove seeds and chop into 6cm matchsticks, transfer into a bowl, sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Finely dice the shallots and finely slice the chilli. Set aside in separate bowls and divide the hot pickling liquid over them. Pickle for a minimum of 5 minutes.
- For the Quail Eggs, prepare a bowl of iced water. Place eggs in a small saucepan of warm water and allow to come to the boil. Boil for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Remove immediately and place in iced water. Peel the eggs, being gentle - as the yolks are still soft. Place the peeled eggs into a small bowl and combine the soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Cover with a paper towel so that all the eggs are in contact with the sauce and there is even browning. Marinate for 10 minutes, then slice in half and set aside.
- To serve, transfer pieces of pork into a shallow bowl. Transfer broth into a sauce jug. Put rice and the pickles into separate bowls. To plate, carefully place the halved quail eggs on top of the pork and the crispy pork skin piece on top of each egg. Garnish with the finely sliced coriander and chives.
