This dish, Hong Bak/Babi Hong/Braised Pork in Fragrant Spice Sauce, is a Penang Peranakan dish. The essential ingredients for this dish are the cekur root (sar keong/kencur/lesser galangal) and coriander powder. If you can’t get hold of fresh cekur root, substitute with the powder form which you can purchase from Chinese medical halls in Malaysia/Singapore. Here’s the RECIPE, happy cooking!

Recipe by Mama Ding

Total Time | 50 mins

Prep Time | 10 mins

Cook Time | 40 mins

Servings : 4 - 6

Ingredients

1 kg (2.2 lb) pork shoulder (with or without skin), cut into 5 cm/2 inch cubes
240 ml (1 cup) water
1 tbsp sugar or to taste
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
5 tbsp cooking oil
6 hard boiled eggs, peeled (optional)
For the Spice Paste~
300 g (about 20 pieces) shallots, peeled
50 g (about 8 pips) garlic, peeled
5 cm(2 inch) piece of fresh cekur root/kencur/sar keong/lesser galangal or use 1 tsp cekur powder
2 tbsp coriander powder/serbuk ketumbar
2 tbsp taucheo/fermented soy bean paste
1 tsp white pepper powder or to taste

Method

01 Prepare the spice paste.

Grind or pound the shallots, garlic, cekur root, coriander powder, bean paste and white pepper powder.

Set aside.

02 Heat the cooking oil in a wok/pan. When oil is hot, reduce heat to medium and saute the spice paste. Saute until fragrant, about 6 - 8 mins.

03 Turn up heat to high. Add the pork cubes. Stir fry to coat the pork with the spice paste, about 5 mins.

Reduce heat to medium. Season with sugar and salt to taste. Stir fry to mix well.

04 Add water and stir well.

Reduce heat to medium low and then simmer for 20 mins or until the pork is tender and the sauce has thickened.

Add the hard boiled eggs and simmer for 5 more mins.

There will be a separation of oil and the spice paste when the dish is cooked.

05 Turn off heat. Dish up and serve.

Notes

For a variation, you can use pork belly instead of pork shoulder. Sometimes, minced meat is also used.

You can also substitute with chicken but cooking time will be shortened. Cook until chicken is tender then add the eggs and turn off heat.

You can add more fragrance to this dish by adding finely shredded “cekur” leaves during the last 10 mins of cooking.

Tip ~ you can save the spiced oil for stir frying vegetables like long beans/french beans/four angle beans.

If you’ll like to see a picture of the fresh cekur root and the taucheo paste, look at our Pantry section. It is listed at the Ingredients Glossary section. Each picture comes with a brief description. Click on the individual picture to read description.