Pork trotter with star anise and soy sauce
Pigs’ feet can be a lot to prepare if you get them straight from the farmer. They’re often a bit hairy and dirty and need to be scalded and scrubbed. If you get them from a reputable butcher (like Tum Tums near Takhini, where these are from) they come clean, halved and ready to work with. This means that all you’ve really got to do is assemble the ingredients and shred the cooked feet once they’re done. Trotters are all about texture—chewy tendon, soft braised skin, tender bits of meat. This version is salty and savory and sweet and makes all those different textures the focus of the dish.
Ingredients
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 pork trotter, halved
- 1 star anise
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1-1/2 cups water
- Cooked rice, to serve
- Chopped cilantro, to serve
- Sesame seeds, to serve
Instructions
- Set oven at 325 degrees. Place chopped onion in an oven-safe dish and place trotters, star anise and bay leaves on top.
- Pour soy sauce, white vinegar and water over trotters. Sprinkle sugar, salt and pepper over top.
- Cover with a tight-fitting lid (or foil) and place in the oven, flipping trotters every hour or so, until tender when pricked with a knife. This should take between 3 and 4 hours.
- Remove the trotters from the cooking liquid.
- When cool enough to handle, remove all the bones from the trotters and place meat, skin and bits of tendon back into the cooking liquid.
- Season to taste with additional soy sauce if necessary. Serve on top of hot rice topped with cilantro and sesame seeds.
Notes
Ready for the oven
