Bak Kut TEddles %)

NAME: _Bak Kut TEddles %)

---

INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:
2 cups stock (beef or chicken or pork)
6 cups water
1 tsp chinese five spice (heaped, depending on tastes)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
several cloves garlic
350g - 500g pork bones (see NOTES)
1 cup straw mushrooms or shiitake
6 - 10 pieces of cubed fried bean curd
1 - 2 cups sliced vegetables (see NOTES)
1 tbsp light soya sauce
a few drops sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste

---

METHOD:
Peel garlic and slice thinly. Place in saucepan with the stock, water, five spice, black pepper, and pork bones.

Bring to a boil and simmer for an hour or two, as long as it takes your pork to become quite soft.

Add mushrooms and sliced vegetables, (see NOTES) top up liquid if necessary, return to boil, then simmer for a further 20 - 30 minutes. Add any greens (see NOTES) and the fried bean curds about five minutes before end. Also add sesame oil and soya sauce at this stage., and adjust seasoning.

Pork should be fall-from-the-bone soft. Remove from heat and let stand for a few minutes.

---

SERVING:
Serve with steamed rice or noodles, and a soya sauce with sliced chilli condiment. Generally also a serve of stir fried vegetables is traditional, but (see NOTES) I've put some vegetables in the soup for the last half hour.

---

NOTES:
Pork should be something like riblets, belly, etc. The main thing is to have bones with a thin covering of meat. I got about a quarter of a pork ribs/belly and cut the skin and some fat off, then split into ribs, and cut the ribs (and the odd strips of belly that protruded past the ribs)  into about 6cm lengths.

Sliced vegetables - it's more usual to have the vegetables as a side dish but as I don't have a stir fry pan going, it's more convenient to add a few diagonal slices of celery, some carrot slices, etc. If your vegetables include pak choi and/or spinach (highly recommended) then add these for the last five minutes of cooking only.

If you want, by all means stir fry the vegetables and serve as a side dish instead of with the soup.

---

ENJOY!