Chinese-Indonesian Babi Panggang

This Dutch/Indonesian/Chinese fusion dish became popular in the Netherlands and Flanders through so-called "Chinese-Indonesian restaurants", common in the Netherlands since the late 1960s and early 1970s. These restaurants are mainly owned and run by immigrants from Hong Kong and Singapore. The dish consists of slices of crispy deep fried pork served on a bed of acar campur (a pickle-like salad made with thinly sliced white cabbage and carrots of Indonesian origin; it is written atjar tjampoer in Dutch) over which a generous amount of the tomato-based sauce is poured.

Tijgerkop video: youtu.be/ADWGm2OYHug

subheading: Meat:

1 lt water

1 kg pork butt (neck or shoulder)

1 star anise

1 clove

1 bay leave

1 cube chicken bouillon

40 ml rice wine

1 tbs dark soy sauce

50 ml soy sauce

vegetable oil to deep fry

subheading: Sauce:

1 red onions

25 g garlic

35 g ginger

1 tbs rice wine

1 tbs soy sauce

½ ts vetsin or aromat

1 tbs sambal oelek

60 g unsalted butter

65 g all-purpose flour

210 g tomato paste

60 g sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp white pepper

1 tbs vinegar or to taste

subheading: Serve:

2 tbs atjar

white rice or fried rice

Put the pork butt in a pan of cold water and bring it to a boil, while skimming off the ‘scum’. Add star anise, clove, bay leave, bouillon cube, rice wine, dark soy, and light soy. Let simmer for 1.5 hours until the meat is tender enough to skewer it with a chop stick.

Take the meat out and place it on paper towels (or in a colander) to dry. Preserve the cooking bouillon.

Puree the onion, garlic, and ginger with a bit of rice wine and soy sauce in a blender until smooth. Melt the butter in a wok and add the ginger mixture. Fry, while stirring, for about 5 minutes until the raw onion taste is gone.

Add flour, sugar, and tomato paste and mix thoroughly. Add salt, pepper and vinegar to taste. Thin the sauce with a cup of the bouillon and about a cup of water.

Heat vegetable oil to 180°C or 360°F. Cut the pork in slices of about 2 cm thickness. Deep fry each slice until deep brown and crispy, about 4 to 6 minutes. Take the slices out and drain the oil on a paper towel. Beat each slice with the back of a chef’s knife to break the crust and tenderize the meat. Cut each slice in strips of about 1 cm.

Arrange the babi panggang strips over a bed of atjar and ladle over some sauce, or serve sauce on the side. Serve with white rice or a simple fried rice.

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