Babi Kecap

This is a classic Dutch-Indonesian dish: a Babi Kecap. I love the sweetness in this recipe. Pork chops simmer in a sweet soy and ginger sauce.

Beb adds a special ingredient: stem ginger or preserved ginger. This baby ginger root is juicy and tender. The baby ginger has been peeled and preserved in a sugar syrup. So delicious!

The soy sauce, vinegar and preserved ginger make the ‘babi’ juicy, tender and sweet. Real comfort food, easy to make and it doesn’t take long.

I also made a video about my Babi Kecap recipe:

Babi Kecap (Chinese-Indonesian pork dish) #157 translated from Beb Vuyk’s Groot Indonesisch Kookboek, page 157.

Ingredients

1/2 kg pork chops (with bone!), chopped in pieces
4 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons water

Spices 

10 tablespoons chopped onions
4 chopped garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 teaspoons ground ginger
2 tablespoons finely chopped stem ginger
1 tablespoon stem ginger sugar syrup
2 tablespoons vinegar
4 tablespoons soy sauce
salt

Sprinkle the meat with pepper, ginger, and salt and leave it for an hour.

Sauté the meat in the oil until lightly brown. Fry the onions and garlic briefly together with the meat.

Add a splash of water, the chopped preserved ginger, a tablespoon of the sugar syrup from the ginger jar, vinegar and soy sauce. 

Let the dish simmer until the meat is tender. Babi kecap is best made a day or so in advance.

I increased the amount of seasoning powder a bit. Beb uses half a kilogram of pork chops. I buy more than 850 grams – because I need leftovers to taste tomorrow too.

Pork chops
Great to read that Beb chooses pork chops for her babi kecap. That’s the best part of the pig for this ‘semoor’ dish, in my opinion. In the recipe, Beb uses chopped pork chops. She leaves the bones in. I’ve never have done that. But I must say, it tastes great.

In the recipe, Beb uses chopped pork chops. She leaves the bones in. I’ve never have done that. But I must say, it tastes great.

Love to use my heavy cleaver for this. I call this my ‘Chinese cleaver’ – is used a lot in the Chinese kitchen.

The bone adds to the flavor of this dish. Especially if you want to keep it a day in the refrigerator. I also like the rustic look the dish has now, with big chunks of bone sticking out. Not much fun for vegetarians ;-).

Ginger
And then the delicious ginger. I buy it at the supermarket. Look for ‘stem ginger’ or ‘preserved ginger’ in a sugar syrup sauce. I love this with whipped cream as a dessert. You can eat it straight from the jar. But today it will make all the difference in this sweet pork chop dish.

I do not cut up the ginger completely. I leave some bigger pieces in as well. Just to add to the surprise when you dig into your babi kecap and a burst of sweet ginger pops out every now and then.

Now briefly sauté the pork and then pour in the soy sauce and vinegar. Add a little water to let it simmer more easily. It does not need long. After fifteen minutes I check the meat and it is (almost) done.

You might think, there is enough ginger in this dish. True, but I still add some more fresh ginger too (this is not in Beb Vuyk’s recipe). This babi kecap can have some extra. It will suck into the meat while waiting in my fridge to be eaten tomorrow. Enak sekali!