Braised Pork Feet

Warning: This recipe post is for pork feet, an exotic Asian dish. Close-minded eaters, please refer to the "back" button on your web browser.
Now let's continue.....

The last time I ate pork feet was over 10 years ago. But I remember it was always one of my favorite dishes my mom made. However, as my family became more health conscious and vegetable-oriented, my mom stopped making pork feet.

The other day at Food-4-Less, I saw a pork feet in the meat section, and gave it sad look, exclaiming how I used to love eating pork feet as a child. My boyfriend said to get it anyways, even though I had no idea how to prepare pork feet. I figured that I could easily find a recipe online, so I purchased a 4.5 pound bag of pork feet.

When I searched online for pork feet cooking tips or recipes, I could not find a recipe that looked remotely close to what my mom used to make.
Instead, I kept pulling up a Chinese (Cantonese) recipe for vinegar pork feet, with tons of reviews saying how delicious that dish is.

I decided to follow the vinegar pork recipe a try, and needless to say,
Holy CRAP, the dish came out tasting like crap!
I was so disappointed, so disgusted, and so dejected.

Day two, I decided to try cooking the pig feet again.
I decided to do something simple, so simple it can't possibly go wrong:
Braise the pork in soy sauce!

For those who do not know, to BRAISE is to slowly cook vegetables or meat in a small amount of liquid, in a closed container
YUM.
The pork feet came out so tender, flavorful, and delicious, and just like the way I liked it as a child.

So I learned my lesson..........
I don't like vinegar, and I'm better off making recipes off the top of my head.


Braised Pork Feet

Ingredients:
- 4-5 pounds of pork feet (please have the butcher cut the pork into smaller pieces. It's impossible to cut at home!)
- 1 cup of soy sauce
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 1 oz of ginger, sliced.
- 6 cups of boiling water

Instructions:
1. Submerge the pork feet into the 6 cups of boiling water, and boil for about 6 minutes.
2. Dirty foam from the pork feet should be on the surface of the water. I boil the pig feet to get all this foam and dirt out of the meat, so I don't have to eat it.
3. Toss the dirty boiling water out, and wash all the pork feet with cold water.





The piggie feet are now alllll clean!









4. In a clean pot, boil the 1 cup of water and 1 cup of soy sauce.
5. When the mixture boils, dissolve the 1 cup of brown sugar (you can also use 3/4 brown sugar and 1/4 white sugar if you like).
6. Toss in the sliced ginger.
7. When the sugar is dissolved, place the pork feet into the sauce.
8. Simmer in lidded pot for about 1.5 hours, or until desired tenderness.
9. *NOTE* Be sure to periodically turn the pork feet around the sauce, so the flavor is evenly distributed among all pieces of the pork.





This finished result.
Piping hot!
Serve over a bed of white rice.







I feel somewhat guilty eating pig feet, all that skin and fat....
But hey..
I only get pork feet every 10-15 years. So that ain't so bad..