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 pork ribs soup with my leftover drumstick stocks. It’s a bit different to the way grandma cook. I opted for a few ingredients just for a change and to experiment both the soup flavours. 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
For you-Drumsticks stock
12 drumsticks
4-6 c water, just enough to cover the drumsticks slightly above 1”
6 garlic cloves, lightly smashed
1 L chicken stock (bought)
2 Tsp chicken powder stock (OPT)
black peppercorns, pound a bit
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 vegetables
3 packets koay teow
3 packets fish balls
12-14 cabbage leaves, cut to bite size
2-4 bunches of buk choy, cut into bite size
4 stalks spring onion, cut thinly
200 g bean shoots
fried shallots
cut chili and soy sauce (OPT)
Method
For you-Do chicken stock one day in advance
In a pot, add drumsticks, 4 c water and bring it to a simmer on low heat about 35 minutes. As it simmers, skim the foam (impurities) off the top with a fine-mesh skimmer or a spoon. When time up 35 minutes simmering drumsticks stock, strain stock through sieve into another pot. (I usually line it with a muslin cloth).
Add remaining stock ingredients into pot with drumsticks and lower the heat to simmer very gently for 1-2.5 hours. The longer the stock, the more flavour it will have, but the drumsticks will lose flavour. Remove the drumsticks from the pot once it has cooked.
Let drumsticks cool and remove meat from bones and set aside. Keep in an airtight container in fridge. Add in 1 L chicken stock, 1-2 c water; if you want more soup, and powder stock into stock for more flavour. Bring it to boil for about 20-25 minutes and check seasoning. Switch off hob. When the stock had cool completely, store the whole pot in fridge. I like it to be overnight to absorb more flavour.
Note: Extra stocks keep in a sterile bottle and in fridge for about 1-2 weeks. If want to keep in freezer, use triples ziplock bags tripple cling wraps and another plastic bag. Then label name, and date, keep up to 3-4 weeks. I usually used them by 2 weeks.
The following day
Pork ribs soup
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.
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.
Koay teow chicken pieces and vegetables
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 my leftover drumsticks stock, fish balls, some chicken pieces, buk choy, cabbage, salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 20 minutes until buk choy and cabbage are cooked. Boil it until fish balls puffed up in size; floats to the surface of the soup for about 10-12 minutes. In the last 5-7 minutes, add chicken pieces from drumsticks stock 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. Scatter the spring onion, bean shoots, and fried shallots over the koay teow bowl and spoon some chili and soy sauce around the centre. Serve immediately with a glass of white wine. Enjoy!!!!
Note: Keep chicken pieces extra in an airtight container in fridge for 2-4 days. To have more stock for next day or two add in 1-2 extra cup of water and 1 -2 Tsp powder stock into stock. Bring it to boil and check seasoning. Switch off hob. If you have leftover stock and when the stock had cool completely, spoon into sterilized jars with tight lids, label name and date make before you refrigerate them.
When you want the chicken pieces, use a clean dry spoon to scoop the amount you want. You can add the chicken pieces with anything. At least you have ready cook meat. Save you time. You can freeze them if you want to keep them for more than 4 weeks to 6 weeks. You can add fish balls and bean shoots, tang oh and lettuce or kai lan.
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