Vinegar-Trotter (updated 1/4/11)

The ingredients for this dish is really simple but loads of work. The trick is to maintan a BALANCE in the usage of ingredients. Otherwise the the VT will end up being either too sweet or unbearably sour.

In my recipe, I use cane sugar(CS) (Light yellow in color) instead of plain sugar(PS)/ brown sugar(BS) for a few reasons. Firstly, CS's sweetness is milder and tastes better than that of the PS/BS. Secondly, the resulting vinegar stock will be clearer (meaning no floating objects or foams). The choice of black vinegar is important. The brand that I use is "teen seong tin". There are of course brands that already had sugar mixed into it but with that, you have less control over the taste of the dish. Do not substitute it with "chit chou" or red (rice) vinegar. For those who are staying overseas and have problem buying this brand, you may use balsamic vinegar which is of course more expensive.

Lastly, you HAVE to have black beans. It is in my cooking terms called the 'filler'. For the trotter, try buying the fore legs instead of hind legs because it has lesser fat (healthier) and more tender. The resulting stock will be clearer too.

You will also need to prepare the dish about 1  day ahead.

Ingredients: (for 15-20 pax)

3 trotters (3.5 kg) chopped into smaller pieces (abt 1/2 size of the fist). Not too small or it will melt into nothing.

1.5 kg of old ginger - cleaned (do not peel) and briefly smashed.

350 gm of cane sugar/brown sugar

150-160 ml light soy sauce

1750 ml black vinegar

3 ltr of water

500- 600 gm beans (preferably 600 gm)

15-20 hard boiled eggs, peeled

1. In a LARGE pot mix all ingredients (except trotters & eggs) and bring to boil. Then let it simmer for about an hour or so. Turn of fire add in peeled hard boil eggs and set aside for one day. 

2. Don't worry if by this time, the mixture taste too sour (not sweet enough) or not salty enough. Once you add the trotter in, it should balance up. So if you add in more sugar or salt and balance it at this stage, the final result will be too sweet.

Clean the trotters (next day)

1. Bring to boil a large wok of water with 2 handful of coarse salt.

2. Meanwhile, briefly rub the chopped trotters with 2 handful of coarse salt and and wash away the salt under running tap.

3. Once the water in the wok boils, place 1/2 the trotters in it (the water temperatture will fall, so bring it to boil again) to get rid of the scums. Once the water boils, remove the the trotters dump it into ice water.

4. Use a the blade of the knife and briefly scrape on the skins to remove the whitish/yellowish layers on the skins AND peel off the white layers near the tips(fingers) of the trotters.

5. Wash the trotters again with clean water and set aside. Repeat step 3-5 again for the remaining half of the trotters.

6. In the pot of vinegar mixture, bring mixture to boil and add in all the trotters. Simmer the trotters for 20 minutes. The trotters will shrink when its fats has melted into the vinegar mixture.

7. Turn off fire and set aside and let it soak in the vinegar.

Serving

1. Before serving, reheat the VT and simmer for 30 minutes or so, (depending on desired texture)

IMPORTANT : must be served hot.

General rule : 1 trotter = 580/600ml vinegar = 1Ltr water = 110 gm sugar = 50 ml soy sauce