Pork Knuckles & Ginger in Black Vinegar (豬腳姜醋)

This is a popular Chinese  confinement dish yet I wasn't served this dish during my confinement.   I later found out that it was a traditional confinement food  for the Cantonese. That makes sense, because my mother, who cooked for me during my confinement  is a Teochew and she admitted that she has never cooked this dish before.  I learned this dish from a good friend and since then it has become one of my favourite dish.  And you don't have to have a baby to enjoy this deliciously fragrant and appetising dish with the soft and succulent meat falling off the bones which is loaded with collagen. While you are enjoying this, forget about cholesterol level and clogged arteries.  

Ingredients:

2 pork knuckles,  cut into big pieces

3 pieces gravy pork, cut into pieces

3/4 of a bottle of black vinegar (500ml) - adjust according to individual taste

1 bottle of sweet vinegar (500ml) - adjust according to individual taste

700g young ginger, sliced

about 200g palm sugar - adjust according to individual taste

3 dried chillies (optional) - soaked to soften

salt to taste

cooking oil

• Blanch pork knuckles and gravy pork.  Drain.
• Fry the ginger slices in a wok (without oil) until dry.  Add a little oil and continue to fry the ginger until aromatic.  Then add in pork knuckles and gravy pork, and fry for a minute or two until dry. Pour in about a cup of black vinegar and keep frying until fragrant.  
• Transfer everything into a large saucepan. Pour in the black vinegar and sweet vinegar and add in the palm sugar, salt and dried chillies.  (Adjust the quantity of the black and sweet vinegar and also the palm sugar according to your own taste).
• Bring it to the boil.  Then lower the fire and let it simmer for about 2 hours or until the meat is tender.

[This dish is best eaten the next day)