Braised Pork Knuckles with Sea Cucumber 海參豬腳, a CNY lunch

** re-post due to some error in earlier post **

Before i go back to my mom's place to celebrate the 9th day of CNY- Pai Tin Kong this evening. I would like to share with you the best Braised Pork Knuckles with Sea cucumbers ( a must have dish during CNY) from my mon (she actually learnt from my Aunt). I cooked this dish when my husband invited his brothers and sisters (around 30 peoples !!) to our house on the 6th day of CNY. I started to prepare Braised Pork knuckles on the 5th day as this dish need longer cooking time.










All guys tossed the Yee Sang ...

My mother's method of braised pork knuckles with sea cucumbers is slightly difference from the others. She start cooking pork knuckles and sea cucumbers separately as easy to control the softeness and tenderness of both pork knuckles and sea cucumbers. Later she will combine both cooked pork knuckles and sea cucumbers together, and add the very important seasonings, chopped garlic and Tiew Heng wine.

My Aunt taught my mother to add a special wood sticks that imported from China, too bad, my Aunt could not tell me the exact name of the wood sticks. I will try to find out later and update to you once the info is available..
Updated on 19th May 2012 - I finally brought the special wood sticks to a Chinese herbal shop and checked with them if they know the name of this wood stick. They told me this stick is 春根滕, this is good to remove wind from our body and good for blood circulation. But they also not that sure because every wood sticks look almost the same, and they wonder why this stick is added in this dish..

Here are the dishes that I cooked for the big lunch that feeding around 30 peoples !!

white-cut chicken

Deep-fried fish with soy sauce and onion

Stir-fried Fish Maw with Celery

ABC soup using the stock from white cut chicken

Since my 4th SIL practise full time vegetarian, thus I cooked two vegetarian dishes, this is Lor Han Chai

Braised Shiitake Mushroom,  replaced normal oyster sauce with vegetarian oyster sauce.

Here come the Braised pork knuckles with sea cucumbers ..

Braised Pork Knuckles with Sea cucumber
(recipe source : by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)

To braise pork knuckles
2kg pork knuckles (front pork leg)
100g ginger, crushed
10 cloves
2 star anise
10 special wood sticks, optional
1/3cup light soy sauce
3tbsp cooking oil
3tbsp sugar
water

Method
1. Blanch pork knuckles in hot water to remove scum.
2. Heat cooking oil in a wok, add in sugar and stir till sugar melted and turn brown.
3. Add in ginger, cloves, star anise, special wood sticks and pork knuckles, stir to mix well.
4. Add in light soy sauce and sufficient water to cover the pork knuckles and let it cook for about 2 hours under medium to low heat until pork tendered. ( I use pressure cooker and cook for 15mins).


To braise sea cucumbers
500g dried sea cucumber, softened and cleaned, refer steps here
2tbsp cooking oil
3tbsp oyster sauce
1tbsp light soy sauce
2 slices of ginger
water

Method
1. Heat cooking oil in a wok, sauté ginger till aroma.
2. Add in softened sea cucumbers, oyster sauce, light soy sauce and water, cook for 1hour or till sea cucumbers are soft. (Cooking time depend on the type of sea cucumbers that you use)

To prepare Braised Pork Knuckles with Sea cucumbers

1 whole garlic, chopped
2tbsp Chinese wine Tiew Heng 绍兴酒
Salt to taste , 1tbsp of dark caramel sauce

Method
1. Combine both cooked sea cucumbers and pork knuckles in a wok, cook for 10-15mins. (Cooking time depend on the tenderness of the pork knuckles and sea cucumbers)
2. Add in chopped garlic and season with Tiew Heng wine and salt.
3. Dish out and serve hot.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (January 2012) which is hosted by Wen's Delight.