Kou Rou with Taro Yam (芋头扣肉)

“Steamed Taro and Pork Belly (Yu Tou Kou Rou 芋头扣肉)”

We loved Kou Rou (扣肉), and I loved it even more if it’s cooked with yam (means taro, we called it yam here in SG)!

My previous post on Mei Cai Kou Rou was done without adding yam. This time, I did.

I believed adding the yam to ‘Kou Rou’ dish originated by Teochew cuisine. Not too sure,  but one thing I was certain that it made the dish even more wonderful! Just swap the Mei Cai with yam and pork belly,  or adding yam to the Mei Cai Kou Rou, works as well.

Simply peel and slice the yam into 1cm thick, place one slice each of the yam before/after every pork belly slice, before putting them to steam. The rest of the steps remained. Click to see full recipe of my ‘Mei Cai Kou Rou’ (梅菜扣肉).

I loved the yam as the soft cooked yam slices absorbed most flavour from the sauce when steamed. Need not to season the yam, the rich flavoured sauce made the yam super tasty!

With full flavouring from the sauce, the yam has turned purplish colour into dark brown. Don’t mistaken it as luncheon meat, it was genuinely the root vegetable, yam! Texture of the yam was soft, too, after steaming for an hour.

I have also done a step different from my previous pork belly dish where I have thicken the sauce before pouring on the final pork belly dish. This is optional, to have the sauce thicken with cornstarch slurry or not.

Without thickening the sauce, the overall dish will look more moist, just as my the other cooking previously. But I did the thickening this time, as I thought thicker sauce would be helpful to ‘tack’ to the pork belly. Just a preference.

The thickened sauce was even darker in colour, almost like the dipping sauce. Yes, it was also treated as dipping sauce, the meat tasted even more terrific!