Pig Trotters Vinegar

Made "zhu jiao chu" yesterday - needless to say the whole house was "perfumed" by the sour smell.

had to made a few trips to get the ingredients, especially the black vinegar (we use the bulldog brand).

Saturday - made a trip to the market and all the pig trotters were sold out. Didn't know it was part of the offerings for "Tee Gong" (pardon me if I spelt it wrongly, my hokkien is v bad) on "ren ri" (people's birthday) which fell on Saturday (7th day of the CNY). So I just bought ginger.

Came home and realised I was out of the black vinegar *grr* so I used whatever I had, the ginger, the stock of vinegar held and eggs to start the process.

Sunday - went to market at 7 plus to grab my pig trotters (actually I want the "pig's hand" or foreleg plus the meat of the shoulder. Then I realised the market's provision shops were all closed - they were told to move and so they closed after appeals to extend their lease were rejected. Then, last minute, they were OKed to stay but it was too late by then. Drove to Shop N Save, nada, no deal. So I had to go to my mum's place and asked if they had any. Only 1/4 of a bottle. OK so I grabbed that too and made another trip to one of the last provisions shops around my area. PHEW. they have both - the single and double vinegar (don't ask me to explain it!)

So finally the pot of the pig trotters vinegar taste right ...

The ingredients and method of cooking is based on "agaration" - I cannot remember the exact measures and some of us may like it sweeter and some more sourer ... so adjust to your own taste!

Ingredients

1. 1 big bottle of double vinegar

2. 1 small bottle of single vinegar (basically just half of the double vinegar)

3. water - same amount as the single vinegar (just use the same bottle after you empty it into the pot).

4. 1 X pig fore-leg plus meat from shoulder - approximately 1.5 to 2kg. The butcher should help you to remove all hairs and cut into appropriate sized pieces (he does it FOC for me!)

5. some rock sugar (I think it's about 150g)

6. 1kg old ginger - skinned, cut into medium blocks and bashed

7. some slices of ginger, a bunch of spring onions and a tablespoon of salt

Method

1. Prepare a pot of water - when it boils, throw in ingredients listed in (7). Leave the heat on high, add the pork. Turn down the heat once it boils. Remove the pork after 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. Panfry the ginger with a little bit of oil. Throw into the pot (no stainless steel or aluminum - use claypots like tanyu pots) and add the ingredients (1) to (3) + (5). Bring to boil.

3. Add the pork and let it simmer on low heat for 2 hours.

4. Adjust to taste by adding sugar or more vinegar.

Optional: Add eggs - you can use hardboil eggs without shells or just add cleaned fresh eggs into the pot directly.