Tom Khem
Tom Khem
Most countries throughout Eastern and Southeastern Asia have their version of pork simmered in a sugary soy based sauce with hard boiled eggs. China has dong po; Taiwan has lu rou fan; Thailand has stewed pork belly with eggs; and Vietnam with pork braised in coconut water with eggs. Tom khem is another version of this classic dish from Laos. What differentiates tom khem from others is the how sweet it is. Drastically more sweet. Like, you can’t eat this if you’re a diabetic. There is also slices of ginger and galangal in the braise, which none of the other versions have.
Ingredients
- 3 lbs pork shoulder or pork belly cubed
- 1 1/2” ginger thinly sliced
- 1 1/2” galangal thinly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 3 tsp dark soy sauce
- 4 cups water
- 4-6 hard boiled eggs
Garnish
- green onions chopped
Instructions
- Add the sugar to a cold Dutch oven.
- Turn the heat to medium low and slowly caramelize the sugar. This will take at least 5 minutes.
- Add in the ginger, galangal, and garlic. Cook until fragrant; about 2 minutes.
- Turn the heat to medium high. Stir in the pork, salt, pepper, fish sauce, and soy sauces. Brown the pork for 10 minutes.
- Pour in the water. Bring to a boil. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for an hour.
- Add in the hard boiled eggs. Continue simmering uncovered for 30 minutes.
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