Kha Moo Palo - Sweet Pork Leg Stewed

This great stew smells of herbs and soft meat which has cooked for hours. It's a great Thai sharing dish or even individual dish.

Ingredients:

Serve 2-3

500g whole pork leg

2-3 eggs

10 cloves garlic

3-4 coriander roots

1 teaspoon peppercorns

1 teaspoon dark soy sauce

3 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce 

5 tablespoons palm sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 small nutmeg

3 cloves

3 star anise

4 cm cinnamon sticks

5-6 dried mushrooms 

1 tablespoon oil

8 cups of water 

Preparation:

Pork leg - wash and set aside.

Dried mushrooms - soak to soften.

Slice the face.

Bring eggs to boil for 10-12 minutes. If you want to peel the egg's shell more easily, put a little salt in the pot.

If you want your egg yolk to stay at the centre, you'll have to keep stirring, as normally the egg yolk will settle on one side. (If the yolk is to the side, it may break up into the soup).

When it's time, cool the eggs in fresh water, peel the shell off and set aside. 

My eggs today are very fresh. I have just taken them from the chickens outside so it's hard to peel the shell and they spread everywhere in the soup, oops!

Making the paste by:

1 teaspoon of peppercorns.

1 teaspoon of salt.

Pound peppercorns with 1 teaspoon of salt,

Coriander roots - wash well and cut into small pieces.

Then crush coriander roots,

                                        Garlic cloves - peel and cut small it helps you crush easier.

and the garlic.

The paste you get.

Cooking:

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil,

and fry the paste in a medium heat until it smells, takes about 1-2 minutes. 

5 tablespoons of palm sugar - you can put 4 tablespoons in first if you don't want it too sweet. 

Add palm sugar and lower the heat, let it melt. Stir and don't let it burn, it's important.  

After 30 seconds, add 1 tablespoon of water.

Stir till all ingredients are mixed,

add pork leg,

cover the whole leg with the sauce. It will make the meat absorb the sauce better if you stick a fork into the meat. 

Place into a deep pot with all the liquid then cover the leg with water, turn the heat to medium.

Cinnamon stick - use 4 cm.

Nutmeg - you can forget about this one if you can't find.

Cloves -  it's still fine without these.

Star anise.

Add cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, cloves, star anise into the pot,

1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce.

mushrooms, dark soy sauce,

3 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce.

soy sauce,

eggs.

Close the lid.

When it's boiling remove the lid,

take the foam off the top to keep the soup clear 

keep cooking until the meat is tender, this might take about 1 1/2-2 hours and don't forget to turn the leg to the other side to cook as the soup water will go down.

You can have some steam vegetables such as bok choy, spinach to eat with.