Adventures in Cooking: Bak Kut Teh
Feb. 13th, 2004 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khaosworksI made Bak Kut Teh (Hokkien, literally, "meat bone tea" - a traditional soup made with pork ribs and various herbs and spices)!
Thanks to my folks sending the proper spices to me in the care package I mentioned a few weeks ago, it came out great.
This really isn't much of a recipe because you really need to go down to an Asian market and hope they have the spices available (or order it online). The spices normally come pre-packaged these days, in a little filter bag that you dump into the soup. Just follow the directions on the packet.
But in general, for about 4 servings, take about 2 lbs of pork ribs, chopped into inch long chunks, 1 tbsp of thick soy sauce, 2 tbsps of light soy sauce, 12 whole cloves of garlic (more or less if you like it less garlicky).
Chuck them all in 1.5 quarts of boiling water together with the spice packet and simmer for about 35-40 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, if necessary (but probably isn't). Fish out the spice packet. Be careful not to puncture or tear it (the filter will probably be very delicate at this point) or else the spices inside will spill out into the soup and that might just be a bit too spicy for your taste.
Finally, chop up a handful of cilantro and stir it into the soup before serving with white rice and dark soy sauce to dip the ribs in. Oh, and Chinese tea, of course - tradition has it that the tea will cool down the spices and also take the edge off the oil from the pork ribs.
And there you go!
Thanks to my folks sending the proper spices to me in the care package I mentioned a few weeks ago, it came out great.
This really isn't much of a recipe because you really need to go down to an Asian market and hope they have the spices available (or order it online). The spices normally come pre-packaged these days, in a little filter bag that you dump into the soup. Just follow the directions on the packet.
But in general, for about 4 servings, take about 2 lbs of pork ribs, chopped into inch long chunks, 1 tbsp of thick soy sauce, 2 tbsps of light soy sauce, 12 whole cloves of garlic (more or less if you like it less garlicky).
Chuck them all in 1.5 quarts of boiling water together with the spice packet and simmer for about 35-40 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, if necessary (but probably isn't). Fish out the spice packet. Be careful not to puncture or tear it (the filter will probably be very delicate at this point) or else the spices inside will spill out into the soup and that might just be a bit too spicy for your taste.
Finally, chop up a handful of cilantro and stir it into the soup before serving with white rice and dark soy sauce to dip the ribs in. Oh, and Chinese tea, of course - tradition has it that the tea will cool down the spices and also take the edge off the oil from the pork ribs.
And there you go!
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Date: 2004-02-14 03:32 am (UTC)Should I be ashamed that I never learnt how to cook?