Sukhothai noodles

A sweet-sour pork noodle broth with raw long beans cut in and ground peanuts on top.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains fish sauce, pork, pork stock.

Ingredients

• 400 g thin rice noodles
• 500 g pork ribs, in short lengths
• 300 g minced pork
• 1.5 litres pork stock
• 3 tablespoons palm sugar
• 4 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons tamarind paste
• 150 g long beans, raw, in 1 cm pieces
• 80 g peanuts, roasted and coarsely ground
• 4 tablespoons pickled radish, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, fried
• 1 bunch coriander
• 2 limes, in wedges

Method

1. THE LONG BEANS GO IN RAW, CUT SMALL. Cross-cut into 1 cm pieces and scattered over the finished bowl without cooking, so they stay crunchy and slightly grassy against a sweet broth. Blanched, they are just another vegetable in a noodle soup.
2. SWEET AND SOUR AT THE SAME TIME, and the sweetness is deliberate and noticeable. Palm sugar and tamarind in the broth together, roughly in balance, which is what separates this from every other pork noodle soup.
3. Simmer the ribs in the stock, covered, 1 hour, until tender. Skim in the first 10 minutes.
4. Roll the minced pork into small balls and poach them in the broth 5 minutes, until they float and are firm.
5. Palm sugar, tamarind and fish sauce in. Taste: it should be distinctly sweet, then sour, then salty.
6. If it tastes like an ordinary savoury broth, more palm sugar and more tamarind in equal measure rather than more fish sauce.
7. Blanch the noodles 30 seconds in a separate pan.
8. Noodles in the bowl, ribs and pork balls on top, broth poured over.
9. GROUND PEANUTS, RAW BEANS AND PICKLED RADISH over each bowl last, in that order. The peanuts thicken the broth slightly as they sit in it.
10. Fried garlic, coriander and a lime wedge to finish.

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 Thailand · All recipes