With the main ingredient being pork, you can create many delicious dishes such as grilled pork skewers, char siu pork, braised pork with fish sauce, and pork simmered with shrimp paste. In addition, you can also use this ingredient to make a simple and light dish, boiled pork. Although it is simple, not everyone knows how to boil the pork to make it tender, sweet, fragrant, and still retain its nutritional value. Let’s learn how to boil pork below to have a delicious dish for your family’s meal.
How to choose fresh and delicious pork
– To cook delicious and tender pork, you need to choose fresh and clean pork. The best pork for boiling is from the pork belly or pork leg as they have both lean meat and fat. When fully cooked, the pork will be tender, fragrant, and more delicious.
– Good pork pieces usually have a fresh pink color and a characteristic aroma. When buying pork, you can press a finger on the meat. If the meat is firm, elastic, with even meat fibers and dry cutting surface, it is a good choice. On the contrary, if the meat is pale, abnormal in color, and has a foul smell, it may have been spoiled or stored for a long time.
How to remove the characteristic foul smell of pork
Although healthy pigs raised by “clean” methods will have fragrant and fresh meat, there are still many pigs on the market that are fed with growth-enhancing feed and have smelly meat. Therefore, when you bring pork from the market, you need to prepare it carefully so that the boiled pork dish will be delicious without any odor.
After buying pork, you need to wash it several times with clean water to remove any dirt or residual chemicals in the meat. Additionally, you can dissolve some salt in water and use it to rinse the pork as the dilute saltwater will help clean the dirt from the meat.
How to boil pork properly
– To make the pork tender, sweet, and without any odor, you need to boil the pork twice. The first time is a quick blanching, and the second time is simmering until cooked.
– Firstly, place a pot on the stove and add 1 teaspoon of vinegar, ½ teaspoon of salt, and a few thinly sliced ginger. When the water boils, blanch the pork for about 2 minutes, then remove it and rinse it with clean water. Thanks to the vinegar and salt, the pork will remain white, clean, and not smelly.
– Next, put the pork in a pot, pour enough water to cover it, and add a few dried shallots to the pot. Season with some spices to your taste and simmer the pork until it is fully cooked. Let the pork simmer in the pot for about 5 to 10 minutes, then use a sharp skewer to pierce the pork to check if it is fully cooked. If the meat does not release any red liquid and the fat part is slightly translucent, it means the pork is cooked.
– When the pork is cooked, you can remove it and let it cool before using a knife to slice it into bite-sized pieces. It is recommended to slice the boiled pork thinly and against the grain to make it more delicious and tender.