OH MY SWEETNESS! IT”S HERE!

Hi Foodies! I finally can share with you all this Hmong dish that is so well known in the Hmong community… SWEET PORK (Nqaj Qaab Zib). It is sweet, salty, spiced, and fatty! Super good with Hmong pickled greens. I love the overly cooked boiled eggs in this dish and all the fatty goodness from the pork. The flavor is more enhance the next day too! You can definitely use any kind of protein in this dish such as chicken, but pork is the main meat we use the most in this dish!

Hmong Sweet pork is kind of similar to the Taiwanese braised pork (lu rou fan) which is also served with their pickled greens as well. But the Hmong version is a lot sweeter than the Taiwanese or Chinese version. You can see this dish being served at most Hmong events when a pig is the essential protein of the event. I get to eat this when my grandma makes me some. But now, you can make it yourself and eat it anytime! So share it and enjoy!

Main Ingredients

Salt, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic, ginger, star anise, sugar, pork, and eggs.

Feel free to use any part of the pork. In mine, I used pork belly, pork butt, and some pork bones.

Some people put lemongrass in this dish, but I prefer ginger, garlic, and star anise. So it’s up to you!

Sauces I used

Oyster sauce and dark soy sauce

If you guys want to make this dish even sweeter, use this sweet dark soy sauce shown below. My grandma loves using this version to give it a sweeter complexity. This sweet dark soy sauce does add a little different flavor to the dish. But it still tastes great! I used the dark soy sauce up above because I wanted to control the amount of sugar I used in this dish. So you choose which dark soy you want to use! 🙂

I LOVE the eggs in this dish! So I boiled extra. Feel free to boil as little or more eggs as you want. 🙂

Caramelizing the sugar is important in this dish. It gives it a sweet, toasty and caramelizing flavor to it!

1+ hour of cooking and look what we got!

Serve it over rice. Hmong sweet pork goes well with pickled greens (zaub qaub)!

I have the recipe for zaub qaub here https://chawjcreations.com/2018/04/03/hmong-zaub-qaub-pickled-greens/

YUM!!

Hmong Sweet Pork (Nqaj Qaab Zib)

Serves: 10-12 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cooking Time: 1 hr 30 minutes 1 hr 30 minutes

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

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Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs pork bones
• 2 lbs sliced pork belly
• 1.5 lbs sliced pork butt
• 2 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 cups dark soy sauce + 1 tbsp
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1 1/2- 2 Tbsp minced garlic (6 garlic cloves)
• 3 inch ginger sliced up
• 2-3 star anise (or more if you like)
• 15-20 eggs (more or less depending on you)
• 2.5 quarts water (10 cups)
• Optional: Lemongrass

Instructions

Cut and marinade your pork

Cut and marinade your pork with the salt, oyster sauce, and dark soy sauce. Mix, cover, and let it sit for at least 30 minutes to an hour to marinade.

Boiling the eggs

Boil your eggs for 8 minutes, shock it in ice water, peel it, and add in 1 TBSP dark soy sauce. Stir it around once in a while to coat the soy all over the eggs. Set it aside until use.

Caramelizing the sugar 

In a pot add in 1 cup of sugar. On medium heat, caramelize the sugar slowly until it turns into a nice amber color. Then CAREFULLY add in the 1 cup of water and cook it until the sugar melts and it becomes a nice amber syrup. Keep an eye on the heat so it doesn't burn your sugar! Set aside once the sugar crystals are all melted.

Cooking the pork and everything else! 

In a big pot, add in 1 tbsp of oil and the minced garlic and ginger. Cook until the garlic is slightly brown. Then add in the marinaded pork. Stir fry the pork for about 5 minutes. Then add in the 2.5 quarts of water, star anise, and the caramelized sugar syrup. Cover, and let it simmer for at least 1 hour or until the pork is tender on medium heat. Feel free to come check and stir it at 30 minutes.

After 1 hour, add in the peeled boiled eggs and and gently stir it in so the eggs gets coated in the soy broth. Cover with a lid and let it marinade in with the pork for at least 15-30 minutes on LOW heat. After 15-30 minutes, take out the star anise and then it's ready to be served! Serve with rice, pickled greens if you want & Enjoy!

-Cindy (CHawjCreations)

Notes

Add as much boiled eggs as you want. I did a lot because I love it in this dish! You can make this dish with chicken! It works great. This dish gets more dark and flavorful the next day! Feel free to cook the pork for a shorter time if you want a less softer texture on the pork.