Ingredients
- 150 g pickled mustard green
- 100 g bean spouts
- 8 cloves garlic
- 3 dried chili peppers
- 3 tbsp. cooking oil
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1500 ml hot water
- 3 tbsp. hot oil , smoking-hot oil
- 2 chopped scallion
Pork and Marinating
- 150 g pork butt , or pork tenderlion
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 2 dash white pepper
- 3 tbsp. sweet potato starch or cornstarch
- 3 tbsp. water
Instructions
- Cut the pork into slices, about 1-2mm thick. The most recommended pork cut for this one is pork butt. You can also replace it with beef.
- Marinating with shaoxin wine, salt, white pepper, and light soy sauce. Mix to combine all the flavors.
- Add around 3 tablespoons of water to 3 tablespoons of starch. And you will get a running-water, starchy texture like this. This special stage is scientifically named a non-Newtonian fluid. In the previous bok choy and pork soup, I used 2 tablespoons and found it was not runny and hard to coat. So I added 3 tablespoons this time. Pour the starch water into the marinated pork. Mix well and make sure each piece is well coated.
- Let's make the soup base, add oil, and fry garlic and dried chili pepper until aromatic. If you get any animal fat, like lard or chicken fat, use it.
- Place the chopped pickled mustard greens and fry until the moisture disappears and you can smell the aroma of the pickled vegetables. This may take some time, and it is the key step for the great flavor.
- Then add water, bring to a boil, add light soy sauce, and simmer for about 10 minutes to let the flavors meld into a soup base. You can add some vegetables as a base- tofu, bean sprouts, or golden needle mushrooms.
- In the meantime, add a pot of water to a boil. Then, turn the fire to the slowest setting and add the pork slices individually.
- Transfer all the cooked pork slices to our soup base. Continue simmering for around 2 minutes.
- Garnish with some chopped green onions. You can serve in this way, or if you want to take it up a notch, you absolutely can finish the bowl the shuǐ zhǔ way.
- Add sliced scallion, then pour 3 tablespoons of smoking-hot oil on top. It won't be the traditional version anymore. But it will be very, very good.