Caramelized Pork and Eggs (Thit Kho Tau ~ Thit Kho To)

Thit Kho To Taken by Susan Tran 

Serving:8

Cost: under 20

Time: 2 hours

This is a dish that is delicious, yet at the same time hold's a deep meaningful place in every Vietnamese heart because our heritages and culture values are reflected through this dish. Caramelized braised pork and eggs, Thit kho to, one of the few traditional dishes served on Vietnamese New Year. Growing up, whenever I see this dish, the memories of the last New Year with the family come rushing back along with the joy and warmness of love.  Thit Kho To, a dish that fills your heart with warmth of love and a belly of joy!

Traditionally, the meat used in this dish have a chunk of skin and fat, but in this recipe I decided to use lean meat because the doctor told me to go slow on consuming delicious, natural, chewy fat! So you can use any type of meat for this dish.For this blog I decided to try a new way for all the visual reader so they can carry out my recipe. The video was not film by me. All credit is reserved to Helen.

Seasoning the meat Taken by Susan Tran

Ingredients:

-          3 lbs of pork meat cut into 1 inch cube (cut then wash them with some salt or vineagar to remove the smell)
-          2 coconut juice
-          4 tablespoon of sugars
-          16 hard boil eggs
-          2 tablespoon minced green onions
-          1 tablespoon of smash garlic
-          2 tablespoon of  minced white onions
-          1 teaspoon of black pepper
-          1 teaspoon of salt
-          3 tablespoon of fish sauce
-          Served with steamed rice
-          4 tablespoon of Dragon Fly brand of Black sweet soy sauce 

Special thanks to Helen' s recipes 

Instruction:

1.      Cut the pork into one inch cube and add it into a large bowl for seasoning

2.      Add in the green and white onions

3.      Add in the black pepper and salt and 2 TABLESPOON of sugar

4.      Mixed up the meat and let it season for 30 minutes

5.      After the 30 minutes is up. Add 2 tablespoon of sugar into the dry hot pot. Add half a tablespoon of cooking oil to it. As Helen mention in the video, this is the tricky part where a nice caramel light brown color form. Be careful of overheating and burning the sugar. A brown burnt color will ruin your dish due to it bitterness.

6.      While you are waiting for your meat to season, you should use a separate pot to cook the eggs. Cook in a separate pot for 20 minutes. You can set it in cold water for it to cool down to peel.

7.      Add the seasoned meat in and stir around. Make sure the meat is equally mixed for 6 minutes so the meat can equally cook.

#7 stir it for 6 minutes taken by Susan Tran

8.      Add in the coconut juice and peeled hard boil eggs and seasoned cook meat into one pot

9.      Let the meat sit in the pot for 1hour 30 minutes with medium fire. No lid to prevent overflow. Be prepared to scoop out the cloudy substance on top of the pot as you cook

10.  You can add in more of the black sauce if the color isn’t showing a nice brown golden color. This sauce can add a sweetness to the dish and at the same time a more flavorful taste to it.

11.  2 HOURS!! Okay it is time to scoop out the yummy saucy braised chicken with eggs.

Have you ever tried this dish before? If yes, tell me about it please!

Tip: It is best to serve this dish with steamed rice.  Enjoy!!