Moo Palo (Thai Pork Belly Stew With Eggs)

The smell of the Thai-Chinese staple moo palo immediately transports me to the streets of Bangkok, where the aroma of pork stewed in an aromatic bath of warm spices is everywhere. 

Stews are all about layering flavors, and the first layering step in making this one is searing the pork belly. This browns the meat, which gives it some additional complexity from Maillard reactions, but it also renders the ample fat from the belly to use as frying oil for other ingredients in subsequent steps. This leads to a stew that is subtly imbued from top to bottom with porcine flavor. 

Moo palo gets its characteristic sweetness from palm sugar. Palm sugar is inherently caramelly, but you can intensify that flavor by caramelizing it in the rendered lard, which imparts deeper nutty notes and a darker color to the stew. Once the sugar becomes bubbly and seems like it's about to burn, I add five-spice powder, star anise, cinnamon, and a paste made from coriander roots, garlic, and salt and cook them all just until they become aromatic. (The addition of the paste, with its relatively higher water content, rapidly lowers the temperature of the frying sugar and helps to prevent it from burning.) 

Finally, I add the browned pork belly back to the pot along with water and the seasoning sauces: Thai thin soy sauce, Thai black soy sauce, Thai oyster sauce, and Thai fish sauce. I am very specific about saying Thai before each of these sauces because this recipe was specifically developed using Thai sauces. Thai black soy sauce is inherently sweeter than a Chinese black soy sauce, which is on the saltier side, and as such, using non-Thai versions of these sauces will give you a completely different result.

Let’s talk about the eggs, which are as desirable as the pork in this dish: 99% of the time, the eggs in moo palo are cooked and stewed along with the pork. This can be quite good, but it produces a very long-cooked egg, which isn't my preference. For the still-jammy yolks I desire, I first cook the eggs separately for about 6 minutes, and then peel them immediately. Once the pork is soft, I add the peeled eggs to the stew to let them soak up flavor for about 30 minutes to an hour off-heat. This allows them to absorb flavor without an extended cooking time.

You can let them linger in the stew even longer before serving, since this is a dish that gets better as it sits. If you have the time or are planning a big Thai spread for a party, this is an excellent choice for preparing in advance, at least overnight and up to three days. The eggs will get even better if they sit in the stew for longer.

Since this dish is rich and sweet, it's nice to serve it with a simple condiment that's spicy, garlicky, and sour to balance out the flavor. Here, the condiment comes together quickly in a mortar and pestle and is easily scalable if you want more. While you can serve the stew all by itself with some steamed rice, it's also a great addition to a larger spread. I suggest pairing moo palo with a spicy dish, like khua kling gai or gaeng som pla, steamed Chinese broccoli, and, of course, Thai jasmine rice.