Braised Pork with Dried Whole Chestnut and Tofu

I recently made some chicken glutinous rice and needed to add some dried chestnuts.  Since I was going to soften the chestnuts anyway, I thought I just cooked the whole packet and freeze half for later use.  I just defroze the soften chestnuts in the refrigerator overnight for this dish.  I bought this natural dried whole chestnut and thus the color was brown.  Not good looking but tasted the same and healthier since it was not whiten.

This was like a braised soy sauce pork except I added a handful of dried chili peppers (not the bird eye dried chili) for some kick.  Since my girls were eating this, so not much to create a huge kick, just a little that I didn't much notice but my little Edda said the tofu tasted spicy.  Probably because I didn't soften it in warm water first, I just added some to stir-fry with the oil.  Perhaps that was why it was less spicy.  You can certainly add more if you like it spicier.  You can also omit the dried chestnuts or substitute it with Chinese mushroom.

Ingredients:

2-3 boneless pork chops, cut into small pieces

12 dried whole chestnuts, rinsed and simmered for 1 hour until soften. (do it a day before)

1 block of extra firm tofu, cut into pieces

1 handful of dried chili

4 cloves of garlic

1 piece of ginger, smashed

1 or 2 star anise

Sauce:

LKK premium dark soy sauce, Hua Tiao Chinese cooking wine, Kikkoman soy sauce, 2 tsp. brown sugar, a little salt to taste.

Method:

1.  Heat up a cooking pot, add a little oil.  Stir-fry the ginger and garlic until brown.  Add in the dried chili and star anise.  Stir a little.  Add in the pork, pan-sealed it.  Add the Hua Tiao cooking wine, stir a little.  Add in enough water to cover 3/4 of the meat.  Add in the dark soy sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and a little salt.

2.  Add in the chestnuts, stir to mix well.  Place the cut tofu on top, scoop some of the sauce to coat the tofu.  Cover and let it simmer for 3 hours or until the pork is tender.

3.  After 3 hours, lightly give it a quick stir to mix in the tofu, be careful not to break it.  Serve hot!