"Hiam Cieo Kua" - Dried Chili Boar Meat

Just to remind me how to cook this dish, my mum thought me last week, one of my favourite dish, I gave it a try but overcooked it a bit, which resulted in tough meat and slightly bitter taste from the spices.

Ingredients:
Garlic
Shallot
Ginger
Boar Meat (Belly parts, the one with 3 lines, ie: skin, fat, meat, cut into cubic shape.)
Mixed Halba
Oil
Salt
Dried chilli
Curry leaf

Introduction

One of the earliest recipe I picked up from my mum. Its easy to cook, but not easy to cook it so that its soft and tender.

Not for those who cannot take spicy stuff, cause this dish is hot..., anyway you can control how
hot you want it by changing the amount of dried chili, my mum usually put around 10 if I am not mistaken.

I consider it a rare delicacy cause first you need wild boar meat, which is not easy to obtain, and this dish is rarely seen in the southern part of the malaysia peninsular. I remember I used to eat it often back when I was staying in Kedah which is a northern state. Maybe because there are more "dusun"s there, and thus more active hunting and trapping of the wild boars.

Anyway, definitely one of my favourite dish. Which is why I asked my mum to teach me.

Instruction

Might not be fully correct, cause I am recalling it from my memory.

To start with, slice up the garlic and shallot. The amount is up to you, the more the better of course, but keep the ratio of garlic to shallot at 1 to 2. As for ginger, about 2 inches will do, the more the better of course, cut into thin slices too. Cut up the dried chili into small slices too.

Heat up the oil in the wok, try to use as little oil as possible since, as you cook the meat, it will release a lot, and I mean a lot of oil. Put in the garlic, shallot and the ginger and fry them until a the aroma rise. Put in the curry leafs as well, about 2-3 stalks of them, without the stalk of course.

When the aroma is really really good, put in the boar meat and mix it thoroughly for maybe 5 minutes and adding a good 1-2 pinches of salt to draw out the water and oil from the meat.

Keep stirring until the water is all dry and then add in the dried chili with the mixed halba. For the mixed halba its really up to you how much you add, but never too much of it, or you will be eating spices instead of meat.

Keep stirring until they are well mixed and cover up the wok to avoid the meat becoming to dry. Stir every 5 minutes or so, until the meat turn light golden brown and you will notice a lot of oil in the wok due to the oil from the fatty parts of the meat. You can remove the wok from the fire and pour out the oil slowly so that its not too oily.

The meat should be about cooked now, and be careful not to overcook or you will burn the spices and add a rather unpleasant bitter taste to the meat. If you think the meat is too hard, pour in a small measure of water and stir the meat until the water is absorbed. It will soften the meat somehow. But most importantly, must not overcook, cause thats what happen when I tried the dish and the meat tasted bitter.

Once the meat is cooked, its ready to be served.