Thokohmakan

Tau Yew Bak [Pressure Cooker Recipe]

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Tau Yew Bak (TYB) is a classic Hokkien dish of pork braised in soy sauce gravy and spices, until it is tender and flavourful. It is also very similar to the Taiwanese lu rou fan, and has been adapted into Peranakan cuisine.

We absolutely love this dish – the meat is cooked in spices and soy sauce until tender, with lovely melt-in-your-mouth fats. The dish is made complete with hard-boiled eggs and some tofu puffs.

Perfect for Pressure Cooker

Pressure cooker is perfect for dishes like this as it allows the flavours to really infuse the meat. Pressure cooking also reduces the cooking time significantly. Nevertheless, we also included instructions for stove-top cooking in the recipe below. We’ve also included our method to cook perfect hard-boiled eggs.

TYB is best served with white rice and some stir-fry or steamed greens.

Similar Recipes

Our Braised Pork with Fu Chuk (beancurd sheets) dish is quite similar to tau yew bak, but with less fatty cuts and spices. However, it is just as delicious. Check out the recipe here.

Find other pressure cooker recipes here.

  • Braised pork with fu chuk is s similar dish

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Key Tips

* We used a combination of belly and shoulder cuts. This way, we still get some lovely rendered fats, with a good amount of lean meat coming for the shoulder.
* Pressure cooker is perfect for braised dishes such as this. Of course, you can also slowly braise this over stove-top until meat is tender and flavourful.
* As with most braised dishes, TWB tastes even better the day after. So we recommend cooking a big portion to last a few meals.

Key Steps in Pictures

  • Blanch pork
  • Lighlty crush peppercorns
Tau Yew Bak [Pressure Cooker Recipe]
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Tau Yew Bak [Pressure Cooker Recipe]

Recipe by ThoKoh MakanCourse: Lunch, DinnerCuisine: ChineseDifficulty: Easy
Servings

6

servings
Prep time

15

minutes
Cooking time

40

minutes

A pressure cooker recipe for Tau Yew Bak (braised pork in soy sauce).

Ingredients

  • 600g pork belly and/or pork shoulder

  • 70g tofu puffs, cut into half

  • 4-5 hard-boiled eggs, shells removed

  • 500ml water

  • 1-2 tbsp cooking oil

  • Seasoning

  • 2 tbsp dark soy sauce

  • 4 tbsp light soy sauce

  • 1/2 tsp five-spice powder

  • 1 tsp salt

  • 10g rock sugar, or 2 tsp white sugar

  • Aromatics

  • 1 bulb garlic with skin intact 

  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced 1.5-inch ginger, thinly sliced

  • 1 cinnamon stick

  • 2 star anise

  • 1/2 tbsp black peppercorns, roughly crushed with pestle and mortar

Directions

  • OPTIONAL – Blanch meat
  • Add the pork into a pot of water and bring to boil. When it begins to boil, reduce to medium heat, and boil for 5 minutes. 
  • Remove pork and place under running cool water to cool down. Cut pork into bite-sized pieces. 
  • Sauté aromatics
  • Heat up cooking oil in pressure cooker using bake/sauté mode. Sauté the minced garlic, cinnamon stick, crushed peppercorns, star anise and ginger. Fry until fragrant.
  • Add the whole garlic bulb and pork belly. Fry both for about 2-3 minutes until fragrant.
  • Add the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, 5-spice powder, sugar and salt. Mix well.
  • Pressure cook
  • Pour water in until it covers the ingredients (about 500ml. Seal and pressure cook for 30 minutes. Allow pressure to release manually when ready).
  • While waiting for the pressure cooker, you may prepare the hard-boiled eggs (see instructions below). 
  • *** (FOR STOVE-TOP COOKING: Add water and bring to boil over high heat. Then reduce to low-medium heat and simmer with lid for 1 hour or until meat is tender)
  • Add tofu and eggs
  •  Once pressure cooking is done, taste and add salt if needed.
  • Turn on sauté mode (for the sauce to boil) and add the hard-boiled eggs and tofu.
  • Let it simmer for about 2-3 minutes to allow gravy to coat eggs and tofu. 
  • Serve with white rice!
  • TKM’s method to cook hard-boiled eggs
  • Add eggs into a pot.
  • Pour in freshly boiled water until it covers the eggs.
  • Turn stove on to high heat. When water begins to boil, reduce to medium heat and cook for 6 minutes.
  • After six minutes, remove eggs immediately and place under cold running water to stop cooking process. Peel the eggs.

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