Cantonese Pork Soup

Pork bones boiled three hours and skimmed, for a clear broth the meat has given everything to.

Pork, Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains pork, shellfish.

Ingredients

• 1 kg pork ribs or neck bones
• 2 litres cold water
• 20 g dried scallops
• 1 small piece dried tangerine peel
• 4 slices ginger
• 300 g daikon radish, in thick chunks
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Cover the bones with cold water, bring to the boil, and pour the whole lot away. Rinse the bones and the pot. This is not a flavour step, it is the only way to get a broth that is actually clear.
2. Return the bones to the clean pot with the 2 litres of cold water. Cold, not hot: a slow rise draws more out of the bones than a fast one.
3. Bring it barely to the boil and then drop it to the faintest simmer, so the surface only trembles. A rolling boil will emulsify the fat and the soup turns milky.
4. Skim whatever rises for the first 20 minutes, then add the scallops, tangerine peel and ginger.
5. Simmer for 3 hours, skimming now and then. Keep the lid ajar rather than on.
6. Add the daikon for the last 40 minutes.
7. Salt it at the very end and taste. THE MEAT IS SPENT by this point and that is the intention — everything it had is in the broth, which is what gets drunk.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes