Easy Babi Pongteh Recipe – Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker
I’m sharing my recipe for Nyonya Babi Pongteh, a classic Peranakan soul food known for its tender pork belly and rich, savoury sauce. While I’m using an Instant Pot to speed up the process, you can achieve the exact same results in any traditional stovetop pressure cooker – the cooking time remains the same!
This dish features glistening pork belly, earthy shiitake mushrooms, and tender potatoes, all simmered in a fragrant fermented soy bean (taucheo) gravy. It’s perfect served over a warm plate of white rice with some green chillies for a bit of a kick.
Cooking Time:
- Pressure Cooker / Instant Pot: Only 30 minutes
Whether you’re using an Instant Pot or a traditional stovetop model, you’ll get that perfect “melt-in-your-mouth” texture every time. Happy cooking!
To learn how to cook this dish in an Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker, please click on the image below to view my video tutorial.
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/EpfwKVuYouI
Easy Babi Pongteh Recipe – Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker
Equipment
- 1 Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 kg pork belly blanched
- 100 g dried shiitake mushrooms
- 600 ml mushroom water from soaking mushrooms
- 500 g small onions shallots
- 250 g garlic
- 4 – 5 Tbsp tau cheo soybean paste
- Cooking oil
- 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
- 500 g potatoes
- 4 green chillies
- 1 tsp salt to taste
- 1 Tbsp sugar to taste
Instructions
- Soak dried shiitake mushrooms in hot water until softened.
- Remove stems and set aside water from soaking the mushrooms.
- Peel potatoes and cut into halves.
- Soak in water to remove the starch and prevent it from discolouring.
- Cut pork into smaller pieces and blanch in boiling water for a few minutes to remove scum.
- Remove blanched pork and place under cold running water to stop the cooking process and wash off scum.
- Blend together small onions, garlic and tau cheo into a paste.
- Switch on the main switch for the Instant Pot.
- Press the “Saute” button and wait for the display to show “Hot”.
- Pour a generous amount of cooking oil and pour the blended paste into the pot.
- Fry blended paste until fragrant and oil separates.
- Add the blanched pork belly, dark soy sauce and mix until pork is thoroughly coated.
- Add water from soaking the dried shiitake mushrooms and the soaked mushrooms.
- Close and lock the lid by twisting clockwise. Press the “Cancel” button to stop sauteing.
- Press “Pressure Cook” button. Set on high pressure and cook for 15 minutes.
- Plunger will pop up when fully pressurised. Timer will start to count down from 15 minutes to 0 minute.
- Release pressure by pressing the quick release button. Plunger will drop back to its unpressurised state. Unlock the lid by turning counter clockwise.
- Add potatoes and green chillies.
- Close and lock the lid. Set on high pressure and cook for another 15 minutes.
- Repeat steps 16 and 17. Add sugar and salt to taste.
