Also known as Hu Tieu Thit Heo . . .
On cold days everyone wants a warm bowl of soup. In Vietnamese cuisine, there are all kinds of noodle soups; the most popular one is Pho. Bet you already knew that 🙂 My mom makes really good soups. I can’t pick my favorite because they are all so yummy! This past Sunday, I went to HEB for a few ingredients for brunch but ended up buying a big pork shoulder because it was on sale. (A majority of that shoulder ended up in a crock pot for carnitas later that evening.)
This recipe is pretty simple. I have been wanting to make pho, but it is such a huge time commitment and I just haven’t found the gumption! So I settled for a pork broth instead!
I finally found a way to add “recipe cards” to my blog!! Yay! Hope it works! You can read/print/share this recipe with friends 🙂
Truth be told, Josh was not the biggest fan of this soup. Can’t hit a homerun everytime, I guess . . . The shoulder I got had a thick layer of fat and skin on it. (uhhh. . . yum!) lol, my JewBoy is not a fan of the fat. Good thing there was a pot of carnitas crocking in the background!
- 1 lb pork shoulder (bone-in)
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- one whole onion
- 1 fresh ginger root (cut up in 1 inch pieces and 1 tsp minced)
- 4-5 stalks of yu choy (baby bok choy)
- 4-5 sliced mushrooms
- scallions
- fish sauce
- fried onions
- 2-3 dried thai chilis
- olive oil, sesame oil
- sugar, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder
- 1 package of rice noodles (any variety of noodle will work)
- *Any protein will work with this broth. Adding a combination of proteins is encouraged! I would usually add shrimp to this, but I did not have any this time :/
- Cut pork into 2 inch pieces and place in bowl for seasoning. I crack a little salt and pepper on the meat.
- Wash the yu choy and slice into bite pieces
- Slice the mushroom thinly
- Finely chop the scallions (green onion)
- In a pot, add a few drops of sesame oil and a few drops of olive oil. (Sesame oil tends to burn off very quickly, so I use a mixture to capture the aromatics of the sesame oil and the silkiness of the olive oil)
- Add the minced garlic and ginger and saute carefully until a golden brown
- Add the pork and braise until all sides of each piece are cooked
- Add 5 cups of water to the pot
- Drop the whole, peeled onion and the big pieces of ginger in the broth
- Sprinkle 3-4 drops of fish sauce, 1 tbsp of sugar, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of black pepper, 1 tsp of onion powder, 1 tsp of garlic powder, thai chilis
- Let broth come to a boil and cook on medium heat for 1 hour for pork meat to get tender
- Meanwhile, prepare the vermicelli (process varies depending on the type of noodle used)
- For this meal, I used what I had in my pantry 🙂 It was a thick bean thread (like thicker, bigger glass noodles). I soaked my noodles in hot water while my broth was cooking. This was enough to soften but not cook my noodles. Some vermicelli requires boiling water to cook. Remember your broth will be very hot and add to the overall cooking of the noodle so keep it on the al dente side
- Check on the meat and make sure it is tender enough for your taste.
- Remove the pork and slice into bitesize pieces and set aside
- Taste the broth and add additional salt and/or pepper if you need to
- Add the cut veggies to the pot, let soup come back to boil. Veggies will cook very quickly.
- Place a serving of noodles into individual soup bowls, ladle soup into bowls, garnish with scallions, fried onions, cracked pepper, and top with a drop or hoisin and sriracha if you're spicy!
- This is a very typical method of preparing Vietnamese soup broth. The vegetables, herbs, and proteins are usually decided by the time of year, what is available or on sale at the market!
- Another way to make this broth is to use chicken thighs instead of pork shoulder. But using protein with bones is the key. An extra sweetness comes from the marrow of bones when it is cooked down. Happy CUCing!
