INTRODUCTION

One of the most common comments received when you posted your pork trotter pictures is there are lots of collagen and it is very beneficial to the skin.. Well, this is a true fact minus the fats under the pigskin… If you keep the pig trotter broth in the fridge, the next day, your broth may become jelly like and if you re-heated it , it will melt and become the same soup again.. The same for the fish stock that you have prepared..

If you Google “collagen for skin care”, you are likely to see that most major cosmetic companies will have such a product to enhance your skin complexion and reduce wrinkles.. Cosmetic surgery also uses this important ingredients.

The health supplements will also want a share of this natural protein product by introducing collagen supplements..You can easily get it in supplement stores in Singapore and Malaysia.

Of course restaurant owners will not be left out in this trends, they will sell you a pot of collagen pack hotpot at a huge price premium and customers believed that it will transform you into a beauty and hence the name beauty hotpot (美人锅） were used. Whether or not restaurant uses the top collagen ingredients is up to everyone’s guess.. I can also cheat the readers in this illustration  by putting some milk and gelatine powder to come out to some collagen look alike ingredients..

Well, I did not cheat in terms of my ingredients but I cheated in terms of my preparation method. Traditionally to get a very concentrated collagen stock like in this illustration, one will need lots of pork big bones, chicken bones, fish bones, fish scales and etc.. In addition, you will need very long hours of stewing until all the collagen were being extracted.. So this recipe is different from most recipes that uses chicken bones and pork big bones. with long hours of slow cooking.. It uses pigskin..and food processor and effectively, it takes less than half an hour to prepare this natural gelatine.

In fact it is a gelatine and if you are unaware, gelatines used in cheesecake or other jelly are actually animal based. Most of them are non halal and prepared using pigskin… Of course there are halal fish gelatine that sell in speciality cake shop and generally, vegetarians are not advised to eat gelatine set cakes..

In my humble opinion, only this method can yields such concentrated collagen and mind you, over usage of this collagen stock will render your soup a sticky soup. That also explains why it is not transparent like what you saw in most pictures and it is solid white that can be cut into squares for usage..

Well, collagen are not fats… There may be minute quantities of fats but in this recipe, it will be discarded and it should be unnoticeable.. Long term consumption of reasonable quantities of these stock is believed to be able to improve skin complexion and inhibit wrinkles formation.

With such a bit pot of collagen stock, how shall we used in our daily cooking.. You will be surprised that there are many usages that can be used in our daily cooking…Usages of collagen in daily cooking includes

• Act as a starch substitute to thicken a sauce – Sauce will be easily thicken without adding any starches.. The dish will be glossy and smooth
• Act as a soup base for most soups such as ramen, hotpot, fish head beehoon and etc.. You can always add one portion to the soup at anytime you like it..
• Provide liquid inside the dry fillings for an enveloped dough such as the minced pork steamed buns, xiao long bao,  soup dumplings (灌汤水饺）
• Preparation of traditional meat Jelly such as pork trotter jelly (猪脚冻） but it need to be diluted first

I do not know how much one pays for a collagen hotpot in Singapore, but I used S$3.50 to prepare this big tub of collagen and it can definitely be used for months. Adding about 100 grams inside my soup already make the soup look thick like the broth of the hot pot..

As per Wikipedia:

Collagen /ˈkɒlədʒɨn/ is the main structural protein in the extracellular space in the various connective tissues in animals. As the main component of connective tissue, it is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up from 25% to 35% of the whole-body protein content. Collagen, in the form of elongated fibrils, is mostly found in fibrous tissues such as tendons, ligaments and skin. It is also abundant in corneas, cartilage,bones, blood vessels, the gut, intervertebral discs and the dentin in teeth. In muscle tissue, it serves as a major component of the endomysium. Collagen constitutes one to two percent of muscle tissue, and accounts for 6% of the weight of strong, tendinous muscles. The fibroblast is the most common cell that creates collagen. Gelatin, which is used in food and industry, is collagen that has been irreversibly hydrolyzed. Collagen also has many medical uses in treating complications of the bones and skin. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collagen)

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About 2 –3 litres of thick concentrated stocks that can be further diluted

• 1 kg of pigskin
• About 3-4 times the volume of water

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• In a big pot put the pigskin, add the water. The water volume shall be at least 2-3 times the volume of the pigskin. You can add water at any stage of your preparation. Bring the water to boil and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Drain the pigskin and keep the hot water.

• Trim away all the fats under the pigskin if any. Cut into small pieces.

• Transfer the cut pigskin to a food processor or blender. If using a blender, add some hot water from the pot and blend it until as fine as possible. You will witness the solution will turn whitish and that is essentially collagen. Transfer the blended solution back into the pot, let it boil for another 15 minutes.

• Put a sift on top of a desired container, pour the hot whitish solution into the container. Collect the pigskin that are not fine enough. If dsired, you can re-blend these pigskin and boil again for the second time to maximize the recovery rate. Effectively, I have only threw away about 100 grams of the pigskin as i have blended a few time to collect more stock.

• Cool completely and when set, cut it into small pieces for future usage. The firmness of your collagen stock will depend on the amount of water added. The more water it is, the softer it will be ..

• To use it, add your pre-cut collagen slices into soup or meat dishes. The soup will looked very concentrated and for meat dishes, it will be very glossy without the need to add starches.

Note:

• If you do not like it to be too thick, you can dilute with water before setting.

• To wash all the cooking utensils, flush all the utensils with hot boiling water.

UPDATED METHOD 2 on 21/3/2016

• Wash the pig skin and put into the pressure cooker pot. Add enough water just to cover the pig skin. Use pressure cook for at least one hour until the skin and soft can easily pierced through by a skewer or toothpick. Transfer to the blender and blend until fine , sift and keep in freezer

CONCLSUION

As you can see, I have prepared two dishes using a small quantities of homemade collagen.. It is so satisfactory especially the shredded ginger chicken. It smoothen the meat without the need to add starches. In view of such thick concentration of collagen, it is likely that I will use it for noodle dishes. My own perception is a small quantity of additional collagen per day will replenish  the natural lost of collagen in the body and in the long run, I hope, I hope, I hope I  will have less wrinkles.. Lol

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day

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