Soy-braised ham hocks

Call this an inspiration from the sad state of the economy. I'm not sure if that's even accurate, because I can't recall the actual reason, and it's likely there are several...but lately I've been fascinated with cheaper cuts of meat and how delicious they can be when prepared right. Some of these cuts are more like formerly cheap ones, until they became more popular and trendy (short ribs, for example) and then their prices went up accordingly, but others are, well, still cheap and sometimes overlooked.

Ham hocks have become one of those cuts for me. Sometimes they're almost all fat and skin, which isn't all that great, but sometimes they're meaty enough to create something delicious. You can use a smoked ham hock to flavor a pot of soup or beans or greens, which was my first experience with hocks, or you can use a "fresh" ham hock to make a dish that actually centers around the hocks themselves.

These ham hocks were very labor-unintensive. They simply braised for a couple of hours, with me checking in occasionally, in a soy sauce, brown sugar, rice wine, broth, ginger and star anise liquid, until they became quite tender and developed a beautiful glossy dark color from the soy sauce. Once they were done, I removed the skin and any extra bits of fat, cut the meat into pieces, and served it over rice with some greens.

Can I say again how great braising is? The hocks turned out delicious, if a bit salty--my mistake was to leave a lid off too long while the hocks cooked in the oven, allowing a lot of the liquid to evaporate and become quite concentrated, i.e. salty. Rice does help counteract this somewhat. I'll definitely make this dish again--with appropriately meaty hocks and a more diluted broth to compensate.