Pork Braised In Tamarind Sauce ( Babi Assam )

Thank you Roseann of  Create Make Bake for the feature of my Filipino Mamon Tostado

I think I have told you about the book titled The Best of Singapore Cooking before. We were in a popular book store here and I spotted it. I knew I needed to buy this book. When I cant think of anything to cook or I wanted to try a local dish, I would go to this book and decide which is the simplest or how far can I go. This recipe caught my attention, initially I plan to use whole chicken but in the end I stick to the recipe using pork.

Babi assam, is a pork stew cooked with tamarind juice. It is classified as one Peranakan cuisine. Peranakan cuisine or Nyonya cuisine comes from the Peranakans, descendants of early Chinese migrants who settled in Penang, Malacca, Singapore and Indonesia, inter-marrying with local Malays. In Baba Malay, a female Peranakan is known as a nonya (also spelled nyonya), and a male Peranakan is known as a baba. The cuisine combines Chinese, Malay and other influences.

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Combine the following in a food proceessor/blender or if you have the strength pound using your mortal and pestle.. not me oh boy! my old blender suits fine.

8 pcs candle nuts 

8 pcs shallots or sibuyas tagalog

2 tbsp shrimp paste

Next:

1 tsp salt ( optional )

1 chicken cube

4 tbsp brown sugar

6 tbsp peanut oil

4 tbsp preserved salted soya bean paste

1 1/2 kg pork belly cut in thick slices

1/2 cup tamarind sauce diluted in 2 cups water

16 pcs green finger chili, seeds removed then cut into rings

12 pcs red finger chili, seeds removed then cut into rings

Note: Remember to take out the seeds from the chili, slice diagonally then scrape the seeds using a spoon or teaspoon. Please wear your gloves too..

Direction:

In a saucepan, heat 3 tbsp oil and fry the mixture of candlenuts, shallots and shrimp paste until fragrant and light brown.

Add salted preserved soya bean paste, chicken cube and sugar. Stir over low heat for a while.

Add the pork slices and 1/3 cup of tamarind juice. Cook until the raw look of pork is gone.

Now add the chili, both red and green and the remaining tamarind juice.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmering mode until pork is very tender ( about 1 hour )

Serve and enjoy.

The tamarind sauce makes this dish wonderfully tasty. I never realize the power of tamarind in dishes. I plan to cook more from this book and you know me, I create and I change and I adapt according to my taste. 

I thought of sharing you what the ingredients look like. Actually you can find them in your nearest Asian store. Nowadays, theres a lot of Asian store popping out in every corner.

Here comes the red finger chili

The green finger chili

Shallots or sibuyas tagalog

Candle Nut. The nut is often used cooked in Indonesian and Malaysian cuisine, where it is called kemiri in Indonesian or buah keras in Malay. On the island of Java in Indonesia, it is used to make a thick sauce that is eaten with vegetables and rice.

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