Title: Babi Kecap I (Pork Cooked in Soya Sauce)
Categories: Indonesian, Pork, Ceideburg 2
Yield: 4 servings
1/2 kg (1 1/4 lb) fillet of pork
-or leg of pork
1 tb Clear soya sauce
2 tb Plain flour
1/2 ts Powdered ginger
20 g (4 oz) button mushrooms
4 Cloves garlic
1 sl Of root ginger, about 2 cm
-(1") across and 1/2 cm
-(1/4") thick
3 tb Dark soya sauce
Pepper or a pinch of chilli
-powder
2 tb Boiled water
2 tb Medium dry sherry or rice
-wine (optional)
2 ts Lemon juice
6 tb Oil or pork fat
This, as its name suggests, is pork cooked in soya sauce. It is a
particular favourite with my own husband and children, who always
know when it is about to appear on the table because the ginger and
garlic frying in the sauce smell so deliciously savoury.
Cut the pork into small cubes. Put the flour into a bowl and add the
clear soya sauce and ginger powder, mixing them well together. Coat
the pork with the mixture and then let it stand for at least 30
minutes.
Clean and slice the mushrooms. Peel the garlic and ginger and slice
them very thin; you can use these thin slices as they are, or cut
them again into very tiny sticks.
Heat the oil or fat in a wok or thick frying pan and fry the meat,
half of it at a time, turning it from time to time, for 5 minutes.
Repeat the process for the remaining half of the meat. The flour that
coated the meat will tend to stay in the pan or stick to the bottom
of it, but leave it there-it will thicken the sauce later. Now take
most of the oil out of the pan, leaving only about two tablespoons
which you then heat again. In this, fry the tiny slices of garlic
and ginger and the mushrooms, stirring continuously, for i minute.
Add the soya sauce, the water and the meat. mix well, season with
pepper or chilli powder, and stir continuously for 1 or 2 minutes.
just before serving, add the sherry or rice wine and the lemon juice.
Serve hot.
This dish keeps extremely well in the freezer, and it is worth making
a large quantity from, say, half a leg-of pork, which is much cheaper
than buying pork fillet. If you are going to freeze your Babi Kecap,
however, do not add the sherry or lemon juice at the time of cooking.
To serve from the freezer, thaw the meat out completely and heat
quickly on a high flame for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring or shaking the
pan well all the time. Add the sherry or rice wine and lemon juice
just before serving.
Makes 4 servings.
From "Indonesian Food and Cookery", Sri Owen, Prospect Books, London,
1986." ISBN 0-907325-29-7.
