Every culture has its own idea how to nourish a woman who has just given birth. Here at home, the traditionally prescribed dish is soup of lean white fish. Contrast this with the Cambodian post-partum diet of hot and spicy (also salty) food, plus alcohol — no fruit of any kind, since fruit cools the body, hence supposedly bad.
Why am I bringing this up? At a birthday party, our table fell to talking about our favorite mother-prepared dishes, and everyone agreed how sad it is that our aging matriarchs now spend less and less time in the kitchen (in my case, not anymore). Then someone mentioned pork hocks stewed in vinegar with lots of ginger (and sugar). It sounded like…
“Humba — I know,” she said. “But it definitely isn’t.”
Now I was intrigued. Her whole family are certified food enthusiasts who also cook very well. Although she mentioned that her mother uses distilled cane vinegar, I suspected that black vinegar would work better, so the next day I set out to recreate said dish from the loose description she provided. As my parents were out of town, I felt like experimenting. I boiled sections of pork hocks until just about tender. Then, in a clay pot, I sautéed lots of bruised ginger before adding half a cup of black vinegar, a quarter cup each of rice wine and brown sugar, three tablespoons of soy sauce, plus the pork hocks and the water they were boiled with. When the liquid came to a boil, I turned the heat down to low, covered the pot, and cooked until the hocks were well tender, skin and fat jiggly, the meat flaky.
I let it rest overnight, like all fatty dishes should. In the morning, curiosity finally got the better of me: I Googled “pork hocks vinegar,” and so learned that I had made traditional Chinese post-partum food.
Does my friend know this part about the dish? I have a feeling she doesn’t, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from enjoying this tasty dish. The only part I got wrong was reducing the liquid too much, but overall, I dare say I came close to the traditional recipe. If you use cane vinegar, you may have to add more sugar than when using mellower black vinegar. Also, cook lots of rice.
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