Sunday, May 12, 2013

Pork Feet Success

I have recently found that slow cooker is actually a really good tool to cook baby/ Toddler food.  (Baby O is now 13 month and should be considered Toddler O.)  Toss everything in a slow cooker in the morning and there will be great soft meat & veggies for dinner.

I bought some cut port feet at the local Asian market and found a pretty simple recipe to do with slow cooker.  It came out great.  We finished the whole pot in one meal and O fed himself spoon full of chopped meat and rice.

Ingredients: 
2-3lb  Pork Feet
4-5 cloves Garlic
1 cup Soy Sauce
3 cups Water
1/2 cup Wine
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2-3 Star Anise
1 stick cinnamon
1 tablespoon hot chili sauce (optional)

Recipe:
1. Boil pork feet in a large pot of water for 5 minutes. Remove all the floating brown bubbles with a spoon. Remove port feet and scrape skin with a knife and rinse under water to make sure there is no hair left on the skin and all are clean. Save the boiled water for the slow cooker. 
2. Arrange pork feet pieces into slow cooker clay pot and add rest of the ingredients (except hot chili sauce).  I use saved boiling water instead of plain water for added flavor.  Make sure the liquid covers all pork pieces.  If more liquid is needed use the same proportion of soy sauce, water & wine. 
3. Turn slow cooker on low and let it cook for 5-6 hours. Taste the "soup" at 4 or 5 hours. Add more brown sugar if its too salty.   
4. Add chili sauce and stir.  The meat should fall off the bones and soft.  Serve over rice. 

This can be cooked on stove top for probably 2 hours or maybe sorter in a pressure cooker. I do love the fact that I can put everything in the slow cooker during O's morning nap and its ready at dinner time.  Don't have to spend more time in the kitchen. 

Port feet is mostly bone wrapped in skin fat.  I simply picked out the bones and chop up the soft meat and finely chopped some stir-fry yam leaves to top onto soft cooked brown rice.  O loved it and fed himself spoonfuls.