Braised Potato with Pork Knuckle

This is a surprised dish for my friends during this Nasi Lemak feast gathering. Instead of cooking spicy dishes to match with today's theme, I am planning to cook something that is totally not spicy. The reason I am preparing this dish is because 40% of the guests are kids and I do not think the kids can enjoy the spicy food for today's theme.

This dish is originated from my grandma and passed down to my mom and now to me. That is the reason, you hardly see this dish on menu.

As usual, the freshness and cleanliness of the knuckle is really important. Since it takes longer time to braise the knuckle, I have to prepare this dish as early as possible in order to get ready by 11 am. I went to the wet market early in the morning to buy a knuckle and reminded the butcher to clean it thoroughly including removing the hair properly. On top of that, I also requested the butcher to cut the knuckle in small pieces so that it takes shorter time to soft. Am I a fussy customer?

The first thing I do is to boil a pot of hot water to blanch the knuckle to remove the blood and dirt. I would say, the most challenging part in cooking this dish is the cleaning steps. The cooking step is quite straight forward especially when it comes to braise method.

To cook this dish, you will only need bean paste, garlic, onion, cinnamon stick, ginger and potatoes. That's all!!! Isn't it easy?? After you fry the ingredients until fragrant, put in the knuckle and continue to fry a bit before adding in water to braise the knuckle until it is soft. After that, adding in potatoes and continue to cook until potatoes are soft and the gravy becomes a bit thickening.


Ingredients
1 pork knuckle (around 1-1.5 kg), removed hair, cut into small pieces
5 cloves of garlic, minced
5 shallots, minced
2 cm ginger, minced
5 cm cinnamon stick
3 tbsp of bean paste
sugar to taste
2 tbsp of oil
5 potatoes, cut into 4 pieces
Sufficient water


1. Boil a pot of hot water to blanch the knuckle. This step is really important to remove any blood and dirt in the knuckle. Blanch for around 1 minute and then remove from the pot. Keep aside.

2. Minced all the ingredient together; shallots, garlic, ginger and bean paste. 

                   

3. Heat up a pot. Add in oil and then the bean paste together with all the minced shallots, garlic and ginger. Using low heat, stir fry the ingredient until fragrant. The oil may dry up. Do not worry as we add in the knuckle and fat from knuckle will flow out later.

4. Then, add in the knuckle and continue to stir fry until all the knuckle pieces are being covered with the bean paste. Add in 1 liter of water and let the knuckle to braise using low heat. Add in the cinnamon stick at this stage.

5. Continue the braise the knuckle until it is partly soft. Normally, it takes around 30 minutes. After that, add in the potatoes and continue to braise until potatoes are soft. Let some of the potatoes to melt and give thicken the gravy before turn off the heat. You may add in some sugar to give a better taste.