Koay teow (flat thin rice noodle) th’ng (soup) is the favourite food for Penang people we can eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The noodles are usually blanched first, then garnished with parboiled pork or chicken meat, sliced fish cakes, fish balls and a sprinkling of chopped scallions and some golden crisp-fried chopped garlic in oil.

Grandma’s koay teow soup method is a combination of pork bones, chicken, chicken feet’s, ikan bilis (dried anchovy) and duck. Her protein garnishing’s are chicken meat, chicken innards, fish balls. The soup looks plain but it packs a full delicious sweet savoury umami punch. The specialty of all koay teow th’ng is not in the soup, it not in the koay teow but is the fish balls. The fish balls are specially made by the owners themselves and of course contain secret recipe that make the fish balls delicious.

Today, I am making the soup with pork ribs. It’s a bit different to the way grandma cook. She would add dried red dates, goji, dried cuttlefish and many other ingredients. I opted for a few ingredients just for a change and to experiment the flavour. I decided to try using my mom old pressure cooker to cook the pork ribs until the ribs are tender, meat fall off the bone. Slurping the delicious, healthy, and comforting soup. Let’s get pressure cooker to do all the work. 

Ingredients

Pork ribs soup

1 strip of pork ribs, about 650 g, got the butcher to cut into strips
15 g dried scallops
10 g dried shrimps
4 slices ginger
4 garlic cloves, skin remove and smash lightly
1 Tbs minced garlic
water
oil
salt
pepper

Koay teow chicken pieces and Asian spinach

2 packets thin koay teow
2 packets fish balls
2 bunches Asian spinach, wash and cut to bite size
2 stalks spring onion, cut thinly
6 Tbs minced garlic plus 1/8 c oil, to make garlic oil
fried shallots
chili sauce (OPT)

Method

Blanch pork ribs in boiling water for 10 minutes and remove them from the water. Then boil pork ribs in a separate pot with hot boiling water for about 5 minutes to remove impurities. Put oil and 6 Tbs minced garlic in a deep bowl with a saucer and microwaves it 30 seconds for 3-4 times, stir in between until garlic is golden crispy. Don’t burn it and be careful, oil will splutter, I use a plate to cover the bowl.

Next, add 2 Tbs of oil on high heat for 30 seconds, then add 1 Tbs of garlic and cook for 1 minute in the pressure cooker. Add all the pork rib ingredients, including the pork ribs after removing them from the other pot. Ensure the water covers all the ingredients by 6-8 cm, about 2/3 of the pressure cooker.

Depending on your pressure cooker, you might want to add more or reduce the amount of water accordingly. Use high heat to pressure cook pork ribs, until the pin 1 drop down for about 20-25 minutes. Now lower heat to medium and cook until pin 2 drop down for about 30-40 minutes.

Meantime, soak koay teow in lukewarm water 10 minutes, drain; peel apart into individual strands. Put some koay teow into bowls set aside. After pin 2 drop down, turn off the hob of pressure cooker and let it cool until you are able to remove the lid of the pressure cooker. I left for 35-40 minutes to cool, and pressure is release completely.

Open the lid and heat up the soup again on medium to low heat, add some more water if needed, fish balls, Asian spinach, salt and pepper to taste. Boil it until spinach wilted, fish balls puffed up in size; floats to the surface of the soup about 10-12 minutes. In the last 5-7 minutes, add chicken pieces from drumsticks stock; link attached below into soup, bring it to warmed up.

Meantime, reheat in microwaves each koay teow bowl for about 1-2 minutes. Ladle 2 ladles or more soup with all the ingredients into warmed up koay teow bowls. Spoon the golden crisp-fried minced garlic in oil and spring onion over the koay teow bowl and squirt some chili sauce around the centre. Serve immediately with a glass of white wine. Enjoy!!!!

https://helenscchin.com/2023/10/14/koay-teow-chicken-and-pork-rib-soup-with-chili-sauce/

For chicken pieces using drumstick stock:

https://helenscchin.com/2022/03/20/koay-teow-soup/

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