The Saigon Pork and Prawn Soup Recipe Hu Tieu Do Bien is a speciality of Ho Chi Minh City (Formerly Salgon), where the pork stock is enhanced with the intense weet and smoky flavour of dried squid. It is also a popular soup in Cambodia, where it is called K'TIAO
SERVES FOUR
INGREDIENTS:
225g/80z pork tenderloin
225g/80z dried rice sticks (vermicelli), soaked in lukewarm water for 20 minutes
20 prawns (shrimp), shelled and deveined
115g/40zf1l2 cup beansprouts
2 spring onions (scallion s), finely sliced
2 green or red Thai chillies, seeded and finely sliced
1 garlic clove , finely sliced
1 bunch each cori ander (cilantro)
and basi I, sta I ks removed, leaves roughly chopped
1 lime, cut into quarters, and nUDe cham, t o serve
For the stock:
25gll oz dried sq uid
675g/ 11/2 Ib pork ribs
1 onion , peeled and quartered
22 5g/80z ca rrots, pee led and cu t
into chunks
15m III tbsp nUDe mam
15mlll tbsp soy sau ce
6 black peppercorns
salt
Method:
1 To make the stoc k, soak the dried squid in water for 30 minutes, rin se\ and drain. Put the ribs in a large pan and cover with approximately 2.5 li tres/ 4 V2 pints/lO cups water. Bring to the boil , skim off any fa t, and add the dri ed squid with the remainin g stock ingre di ents. Cove r the pan and simmer for 1 hour, then skim off any foam or fat and conti nue to simmer, uncovered, for a fu rther Ph hou rs.
2 Strain the stock and c heck the season ing. You should have roughly 2 litres/3 1/2 pints/8 cups .
3 Pour th e stock into a wok or deep pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, add the pork tend erl oin and simmer for 25 minutes. Lift the tenderl oin out of
the stock, place it on a board and cut it into thin slices . Mea nwhile, keep the stock simmering gently over a low heat.
4 Bring a pan of water to the boil. Drain the rice sticks and add to the water. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until tender, separating them with chopsticks if they stick together. Dra in the rice sticks and divide them among four warm bowls.
5 Drop the prawns into the simmeri ng stock fo r 1 minute. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and layer them with the slices of pork on top of the rice st icks.
Lad le the hot stock over them and sprin kle with bea nsprouts, spring on ions, ch illies, garlic and herbs. Serve each bowl of soup with a wedge of lime to squeeze over it and nUDC cham to splash on top.
COOK'S TIP:
To serve the soup on its own, add bitesize pieces of soaked dried shiitake mushrooms or cubes of firm tofu.
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| Saigon Pork and Prawn Soup |
