Recipe: Bak Kut Teh - Halal Version
I have been craving for the Singapore/Malaysia Chinese soup 'Bak Kut Teh' which means meat, bone and tea. This soup is usually eaten with Chinese Olong tea to eliminate the oily taste of the soup.
I remember reading about the humble beginning of this soup. In the early days when Chinese immigrants first arrived in Singapore and Malaysia, food vendors would boil a small amount of meat and bones, usually pork, with spice and herbs in a big pot of water. Poor immigrant workers on their way to work would stop by these food vendors, conveniently located along walkways, and order a bowl of soup with rice. This simple dish may not fill the stomach of the workers, but it was enough to keep them going for the day.
Usually I would use a pre-packed Bak Kut Teh spice from Malaysia to prepare the soup. But since I did not have any in my pantry, I used a recipe from the book 'Nan Yang Xiao Chi: Local Delights' to make the soup. All praise be to Allah SWT the soup taste so good!
Ingredient 1:
1kg spareribs/beef with bones
Ingredients 2:
60g fragrant solomon seal (yu zhu)
60g red dates, pitted
30g black peppercorns
2 whole star anise (ba jiao)
20g cinnamon bark (gui pi)
5g preserved mandarin orange peel (chen pi)
250g whole garlic
3500ml water
Seasoning:
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2tbsp salt
Method:
1. Rinse meat with bones clean. Boil for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Put all ingredients 2 in a cloth bag. Seal tight.
3. Boil bag of ingredients in 35000ml water over moderate heat for 1 hour. Add meat with bones and continue boiling for another 1 hour, or meat becomes tender but still attached to the bones.
4. Remove bag of ingredients and stir in seasoning. Serve Bak Kut Teh with fresh chilli, dark soy sauce and plain rice.
I remember reading about the humble beginning of this soup. In the early days when Chinese immigrants first arrived in Singapore and Malaysia, food vendors would boil a small amount of meat and bones, usually pork, with spice and herbs in a big pot of water. Poor immigrant workers on their way to work would stop by these food vendors, conveniently located along walkways, and order a bowl of soup with rice. This simple dish may not fill the stomach of the workers, but it was enough to keep them going for the day.
Usually I would use a pre-packed Bak Kut Teh spice from Malaysia to prepare the soup. But since I did not have any in my pantry, I used a recipe from the book 'Nan Yang Xiao Chi: Local Delights' to make the soup. All praise be to Allah SWT the soup taste so good!
Ingredient 1:
1kg spareribs/beef with bones
Ingredients 2:
60g fragrant solomon seal (yu zhu)
60g red dates, pitted
30g black peppercorns
2 whole star anise (ba jiao)
20g cinnamon bark (gui pi)
5g preserved mandarin orange peel (chen pi)
250g whole garlic
3500ml water
Seasoning:
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2tbsp salt
Method:
1. Rinse meat with bones clean. Boil for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Put all ingredients 2 in a cloth bag. Seal tight.
3. Boil bag of ingredients in 35000ml water over moderate heat for 1 hour. Add meat with bones and continue boiling for another 1 hour, or meat becomes tender but still attached to the bones.
4. Remove bag of ingredients and stir in seasoning. Serve Bak Kut Teh with fresh chilli, dark soy sauce and plain rice.
Labels: cooking
posted by Jiru at
8:18 PM
