OK! Here's another "If Tony can, I can do at least 100x better" recipe.
Stuck at home under *Circuit Breaker rules, I stumbled upon stories about Hsiao Wang Pickled Cucumber Pork Soup stall which was awarded the Bib Gourmand in Taipei's Michelin Guide 2019.
* Circuit Breaker is mandatory social distancing rules implemented by the Singapore government to stem the spread of COVID-19 infections. Initially from 7 Apr to 4 May 2020, CB was extended to 1 June. Under CB, people are encouraged to stay home except absolutely necessary.
Hsiao Wang is one of countless stalls selling lu rou fan (braised pork rice) all over Taiwan. Back in 1975, Hsiao Wong introduced pickled cucumber pork soup 清湯瓜仔 to complement his lu rou fan. He wanted something to set his night market stall apart from his many competitors.
Pickled cucumber pork soup 清湯瓜仔 is no secret recipe dish. It is a humble easy to cook home dish which loving but overworked Taiwanese mothers make all the time in the 1970s. Still, no other lu rou fan stall serves this soup and for generations, Hsiao Wang's customers return for a taste of mum's cooking.
It looked simple to replicate, so I tried it out at home.
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| Screen grab from YouTube |
Hsiao Wang use this made in Taiwan canned pickled cucumber.
I couldn't find the Taiwanese brand in a hurry in Singapore, so I settled for this NTUC FairPrice house brand. The pickled cucumbers are imported from Taiwan.
Hsiao Wang uses pork belly. I actually like pig tail the best for soup but couldn't get any at the market this morning. So I settled for my next preferred cut, pork trotter. I used half a trotter or about 700 grams for today's soup.
I threw in a chicken rib cage because I like the subtle layered flavours it brings to pork soup but it is really optional.
I blanched the pork trotter and chicken with boiling water because I like my soup to be clean tasting.
The pickled cucumber bottled with soya sauce and sugar.
I put the blanched pork trotter and chicken rib cage in a pressure cooker and emptied the whole bottle of pickled cucumber with all the soya sauce into it.
Fill up the pressure cooker to the 2 litre mark. I like to use boiling water to shorten the cooking time in the pressure cooker.
Close the lib safely and set the pressure cooker to "SOUP 20 minutes". Then, go watch Crash Landing on You 😄
Tah dah 💃
So, how does it taste?
It's nice 😋
The tea coloured soup is light bodied. It has a mild well balanced savoury sweet flavour with an underlying subtle sweetish zest that comes across as 清 (refreshing is the closest word I can think of in English). The soup was not greasy, just a few floating oil globules here and there. Highly drinkable and good to the last drop.
At Hsiao Wang's stall, customers get free flow soup, free soup top ups.
The pork meat was tender and juicy - fall-off-the-bone actually. Much of its natural sweetness was retained with a slight infusion of savoury sweet flavour from the pickled cucumber.
The pickled cucumber lost all its crunch and surrendered almost all its savoury sweet tangy flavour to the soup and pork. So, thanks Mr. Cucumber.
I like the outcome and this is an easy tasty soup even I can make in a hurry for family and friends.
The possibilities for tweaking the recipe are endless... e.g. throw in some dried longans or red dates for more sweetness and some sweet aroma etc. Alternatively, eat it with some pickled cucumbers as toppings to enjoy its crunch and sharper savoury sweet tangy taste with the soup. Give this a try and let me know your outcomes 😄
Date: 24 Apr 2020 (on the seventeenth day of Circuit Breaker)
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