Cukiok – Hakka Style Braised Pig’s Trotter. It’s one of the traditional and luxurious food that Hakka people love! Cu means Pig and Kiok means Feet in the Hakka dialect. There are plenty of similar-looking recipes in Chinese cuisine, Hokkien, and even Hong Kong cuisine.
In Hokkien, this Cukiok dish is known as Lo Tu Kha, which is the same meaning as Pig’s trotter. Typically cooked with a bunch of brown sauces like black bean sauce, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. The flavour are sweet, savoury and a bit of heat from the red chili.
What kind of Black Bean Soy Sauce and Soy Sauce to use?
Black bean soy sauce is thicker and sweeter compared to the normal soy sauce. My family has been using Bango black bean soy sauce for years with this recipe because it has a much better after taste and stronger flavour. As for soy sauce, we only use Angsa brand soy sauce, which is another Chinese-Indonesian brand. We tried to use proper Chinese soy sauce in the different brands but the flavour not as good. Feel free to try other brands or what you normally use to cook Southeastern Asian cuisine.
Why cook this with no oil?
It’s better to cook it without oil. As you stir the pig’s trotter in a high-heated wok, the natural oil from the fat will be released and won’t stick onto the wok.
Hakka Style Braised Pig’s Trotter
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
- wok
Ingredients
- 1 pc Pig's Trotter 1 trotter is around 1,5 kilogram
- 7 pcs Shitake Mushroom Sliced
- 7 pcs Garlic Crushed
- 5 pcs Curly Red Chilli Sliced
- 2 tbsp Oyster Sauce can add more according to your palette
- 2 tbsp Black Bean Soy Sauce can add more according to your palette
- 2 tbsp Soy Sauce can add more according to your palette
- 2 tsp Mushroom Stocks
- 1 litre Water
Instructions
- Clean up the pig's trotter thoroughly – set aside
- Heat up wok with NO OIL
- Put the pig's trotter into the wok and stir fry it with oyster sauce until fragrant
- Add crushed garlic (don't mince or chop it)
- Add black bean soy sauce and soy sauce, stir and mix it well
- Pour water until it covers the whole surface of the pig's trotter
- Then, add sliced mushroom and sliced chili
- Cook and taste it, adjust the flavour by adding mushroom stock, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and black bean soy sauce
- Once the flavour is good, pour into a pressure cooker
- Cook it for 25 mins and you are done!
Cukiok is probably one of the easiest and tastiest in Hakka cuisine culture. There are so many other Hakka pork dishes such as Nyuk Piang (Hakka Style Pork Meatloaf) and Mun Lon (Hakka style Minced Pork with Eggs). Cukiok has similar seasoning with Samcan Kecap (Hokkien Caramelised Pork Belly) but because of the different cut of the pork, and additional chili, it has more tender meat and less fat than Samcan Kecap.
What’s your favourite Hakka dish? Leave in the comment below! Good luck!
