Teochew Kiam Chye (Salted Veg) Singapore Style Recipe

This dish goes really well with staples such as muay (plain porridge) or even kway chap. I've tried looking for this dish for a while now, and been surprised to find that the only people who sell this dish here don't prepare it as they do in Singapore. Probably because most of the restaurants that do are from Hong Kong or China. Their version is a pickled version and is more sour than ours. I noticed as well that the Asian supermarkets tend to carry more of the pickled vegetables than salted vegetables which is what we need for this dish. My Singapore version of Kiam Chye is literally melt in your mouth with a bit of sweetish salty taste to it. I've looked on the Internet for suitable recipes but I guess as usual I would rather do it my way to my own picky taste. Note that you do require a few hours of cooking time for this.

Ingredients

2 Salted Vegetables chopped very finely
250gm Belly Pork chopped with skin intact
2 litre chicken stock
3 tb sugar
Salt to taste

Method

Place chopped salted veg into a pot, pour boiling water just enough to soak all the kiam chye. Then boil for about 3 min. Drain.

Then put chopped belly pork and blanched kiam chye into a pressure cooker. Add 1 litre of chicken stock (and water if not enough) to at least 10cm above the kiam chye. Place the lid of the pressure cooker on and cook on medium heat for 45 min.

You'll find at this point that the kiam chye would have soaked up most of the stock and/or water. Now is the time to add the sugar and slowly simmer the kiam chye for the next couple of hours, replenishing with water or stock as needed so it doesn't dry out. Some people choose to put a bit of oil in it, I don't. It is time-consuming but definitely worth the effort for this dish. When it's almost ready, add salt to taste and maybe a cut chilli.

Kiam Chye

Belly Pork

All chopped up

In pot for blanching

Drain

In the pressure cooker after the 45min stew followed by 2 hours of slow simmer

All done and ready to makan