Traditional Taiwanese Meat Sauce

This is a very simply dish to make, traditionally it is poured on rice but many resturants serve it with vegetables or noodles. I made mine 2 ways, one with pork belly, eggs, fried tofu; the other with lean ground pork and mushrooms.

I bought the whole strip of pork belly and cut it myself, it takes a a little bit more time/effort but it makes such a big difference!

I tried to fry the pork first to get te oil out and fry and shallots/garlic in the oil without adding extra fat, BUT I actually find that a bad idea... you should either get the pork out before frying the garlic/shallots or just fry them first then add the pork.

Enjoy yours with a hot bowl of rice!

p.s my secret ingredient is peanut butter

Ingredients:

- 2 shallots

- 7~ cloves of garlics

- 1 pound of pork belly

- dried mushrooms (optional)

- boiled eggs ( optional)

- fried tofu ( optional)

- spice anise ( you can use 1 tsp 5 spice power)

- 1 tbsp of peanut butter

- 1 tbsp of sugar

- around 1/2 cup of rice wine

- 1 cup of soy sauce

- a handful of fried dried shallots ( store bought)

Steps:

1) Cut the pork in small pieces, cut the garlic/ shallots, cut the garlic first

(I've heard you can maximize the benifits of garlic if you let it oxidize in air for a bit before you fry it)

2) Fry garlic/shallots until golden, add in pork

3) when it's dry/goldish add water/ soysauce( you don't have to add all of it)/ sugar/rice wine

4) Put in spice and fried shallots , peanut butter

5) Simmer for an hour, add in the eggs then tofu

Easy!