Pig's trotter cooked in black sweetened vinegar

Today I got this one recipe to share... My hubby and myself just love to eat this. This is also one of my all-time favourite dish during confinement after delivery of my 2 kids.

Ingredients:

1 pig’s trotter (remember to ask for pig’s trotter and not leg) –weighs around 600-800 grams
* trotter is the two front legs of the pig and there are more tendons, meat than fats whilst the two legs behind are mostly fats and usually very big. In Cantonese, trotters are called it "chee sou" (aka pig’s hands) and the back legs are called "chee keok" (aka pig’s legs)

1 bottle of sweetened vinegar (it is sweetened vinegar and not black vinegar)
**I use the Anchor brand Sweet and Sour Black Sauce which can be found only in Sandakan. If you use this, then you can omit the brown sugar below as it is already very sweet

5-6 tablespoon of sesame oil
3 tablespoon of brown sugar (omit or put in less or more depending to taste. Some people like it sour)
Salt to taste
1 large piece of ginger, break into smaller pieces, skinned and bruised (about 300-400gm)
Hard boiled eggs (optional)

Method :

1. Clean pig’s trotter really clean, removing hairs and any funny discolouration. Blanch it in hot water. Remove and drain well.
2. Heat up the sesame oil, fry ginger till golden brown and aromatic.
3. Dish out and transfer ginger into a claypot(or any other pot if you do not have a claypot) and add the vinegar. Bring to a boil.
4. Simmer for 30 minutes till ginger turns soft. Add the trotter, water, brown sugar and salt to taste and simmer over low fire till soft and tender. This takes about 2-3 hours. Please note that no water is needed unless you can’t cover the pig’s trotter with the vinegar. Add just enough so that the soup/gravy is not too diluted.
5. If you like, boil several eggs (hard-boiled eggs), peel and add into the soup/gravy when it is about halfway cooked. Make sure that the eggs are immersed fully into the gravy. The eggs will absorb the aroma and the yolk will taste very nice.
6. Every half an hour or so, just stir it so that the trotters(and eggs, if any) are immersed evenly in the soup/gravy and is evenly cooked.