Noodles and Rice

Bak Kut Teh (Pork Rib Tea Soup)

by Stef on February 27th, 2006

No, this soup isn’t really “tea”. However, traditional recipes usually include Chinese herbs like gan cao/licorice and dang guei/dong quai (yes, the Chinese angelica that has received so much attention the past few years) making it closer to herbal tea preparations. Here is a simplified version, more similar in flavor to Vietnamese beef stocks but still very satisfying. Sold by street hawkers in Malaysia and Singapore, it comes from the Southern part of China and is is perfect as a “restorative” dish, or a quick pick-me-up, excellent for chilly winter days. My recipe comes from the San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook.

Serve it as a two-part meal. Dip the ribs into the soy sauce and hot pepper mixture and eat with rice. Drop the Chinese crullers into the broth and eat together.

Lucky for me, I found ribs that have already been cut 2-inch long, though they were left in one long connected piece, so all I had to do was to separate each rib. It was a bargain I couldn’t pass up, and this dish immediately came to mind.
1 pound pork back ribs, chopped into 2-inch lengths
1 large garlic clove, crushed
6 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
3 whole star anise (or enough pieces to make up 3 whole ones)
1 teaspoon white peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons dark soy sauce, or to taste

1 serrano chile or other hot chile, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons crisp-fried shallot flakes
6 cups steamed white rice
2 Chinese crullers, sliced

Combine pork, garlic, and water in a casserole or large saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for a few minutes, skimming any scum that rises to the surface. Add cinnamon stick, star anise, white peppercorns, sugar, salt and soy sauce. Decrease heat to simmer and cook 45 minutes or until pork is tender. At this point you can degrease the broth by running through a fat separator (or chill overnight to solidify the fat and discard. If so, slowly heat the soup and the ribs before serving.)

Mix together serrano chile slices and soy sauce. Divide soup and ribs into 6 bowls and garnish with shallot flakes. Serve with rice and cruller slices.(By the time I remembered to include the shallots in the picture, we were already halfway through our dinner. Sorry!)

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POSTED IN: Soups and Stews