HOME COOKING BLACK BEAN AND FERMENTED BEAN (TAU CHEO) PORK BELLY WITH HARD BOILED SLICED EGG AND BEAN CURD

I recently ate this really funky dish at KL Supper Club in Kuala Lumpur and wanted to try to replicate it at home. However, Blimbing the sourish fruit used to cook this dish is not easy to find, and the market I went to this weekend didn’t carry it.  I decided to cook a version of it without the fruit which frankly would change it into a completely different dish. Oh well.

I also decided that I would use pork belly instead of just pork lard as my girls are only moderately fond of pork lard.  I was still thinking of how my final dish would look like and suddenly remembered this dish that I really liked at a small Taiwanese home cooked food restaurant. They used black bean and chilli to make this really savoury dish with hard boiled sliced eggs. 

I decided to combine the two dishes.  I had some beancurd (tau kwa) and decided to add those too.  

So here’s the super bastardised dish I came out with 

1. Dry fry one spoonful of Belachan (dried prawn paste) and set aside.
2. In a hot wok or pan, add 3 spoonfuls of vegetable oil.
3. Fry 2 spoonfuls of chopped garlic, and 2 heaped spoons of black bean sauce.
4. Add 4 large chillies cut into large chunks.
5. Add the sliced egg slices . Fry all this on high heat as you want to get the slices in and out quickly . Turn the eggs gently and try not to break them. Smear it with the garlic and black bean sauce in the pan.
6. Remove as much of the egg slices as you can and set aside.
7. At this stage add 3 -4 more spoons of vegetable oil. I had earlier fried about 10 pieces of crispy pork lard so at this stage I added the pork lard oil instead of vegetable oil.
8. Let the oil heat up and add a spoon of minced shallots and minced garlic.
9. Add a heap spoon or two of fermented bean curd. Stir through for 30 seconds so that the bean curd is cooked through.
10. Add pork belly slices (cut into about  an inch slices). Stir fry well.
11. Add a generous dash of Chinese rice wine and fish sauce , a little salt and pepper and a little dark soy.
12. Add a little corn flour water to loosen the dish .  
13. I had earlier cut two bean curd (tau kwa) into small cubes and fried them into slightly golden brown to set aside . Do not over fry the bean curd as u want the middle to be still wobbly .
14. Add the bean curd and stir through.  Place the ingredients in the pan into a serving plate and arrange sliced eggs over.

Other dishes cooked for lunch were sambal ladies fingers with large prawns , spinach with shiitake mushrooms and Belachan (prawn paste) fried rice.