This week, we wanted to teach you how to make
an absolutely classic noodle dish from the
Jiangsu province, Suzhou Big Meat noodles.
What you’re looking at here is some noodles
served alongside an overly generous slice
of fatty pork and julienned ginger, all served
in a… ridiculously delicious soup.
But word of warning here – that soup is…
complex.
It’s a combination of two different kinds
of stocks, a flavored oil, and, naturally
I guess, a two day fermented Rhizopus koji
water… not to mention the slow simmered
pork belly that forms the base of it all.
But assuming you’re up for the project,
you’re in for what might just be one of
the tastiest noodle soups that I’ve ever
eaten.
So to get started with Suzhou big meat noodles,
you’ll need a big slab of meat.
Now, traditionally the cut that’s used here
is called letiaorou, which’s basically a
bone-in pork belly.
Unfortunately, markets in here Guangdong don’t
carry that cut though so instead we just used
the leanest slab of belly we could find.
But either way, just scrape off any hair,
then give that soak in cool water for at least
an hour.
This’ll draw out a bit of the myoglobin
from the pork and give it a more flushed,
attractive color in the end.
After that time then, toss your pork belly
skin side down in the largest stockpot you
own… and if you’re using bone-out belly
like us, also toss in a few extra pork bones
to make up for the lack of rib.
Then just add in about two and a half liters
of cool water, three tablespoons of liaojiu
aka Shaoxing wine, 1 tbsp salt, one star anise,
half a cinnamon stick, a quarter teaspoon
fennel seed, a quarter teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns,
two inches of crushed ginger, and two large
springs of scallion, tied in a knot.
Now bring that up all up to a boil, skim if
you find it a bit gunky, then toss the heat
to the lowest flame your stove’ll go and
simmer for four hours.
After that time, shut off the heat, and let
it all come completely down to room temperate.
This’ll likely take at least a couple hours
though, so for us, we just like to leave it
covered and have it sit out overnight.
Then after that soak, carefully take it out,
toss on a plate, pat it completely dry and
wrap it all with seran wrap.
Then toss in the fridge to cool down for at
least four hours but… overnight also works
just fine.
Definitely don’t toss that poaching liquid
though!
This stuff’ll form the base of our soup,
so give it a strain and also toss that in
the fridge.
After that time, your pork is basically ready
to toss in some soup.
At this point, trim off any ugly bits, and
cut it into two centimeter strips.
As an aside though, at this point some shops’ll
then take those slabs of pork and soak them
overnight in some Zaolu pickling liquid, which
we covered in our Zaolu video up here.
While we do think that that would be a nice
idea, we didn’t end up going that route
today because we were feeling lazy.
Then at this point, also take a look at the
leftover poaching liquid that you also had
in the fridge – that stuff will need to
get de-fatted.
So just scoop that lard off the top, but be
sure to reserve it… that’ll form the base
of our seasoned oil later.
And with all that done, we can get to the
real time consuming part here, the soup.
So.
The style of soup used in this dish is called
a pintang, which’s a combination of multiple
soups.
One of the ‘soups’ we’ll be using here
is gunna be that poaching liquid that we just
de-fatted.
But the primary ‘soup’ that makes this
dish this dish is gunna be this guy, river
eel bone soup.
Now, I know, don’t panic.
We know you guys outside China won’t be
able to source river eel bones.
So we tested a few different routes, and to
sub the eel we settled on a combination of
250 grams of bone in river fish – Tilapia
for ease of international replication – and
250 grams of bone in duck, so duck legs would
also work great.
Now to give our soup a cleaner flavor, we’ll
first add our fish and duck pieces to some
bubbling water together with a splash of liaojiu
a.k.a. Shaoxing wine, and give it all a quick
blanch.
Cook it for about three minutes, then, carefully
take those out and give em a rinse under running
water to get off any leftover gunk.
Now add those to a pot together with a couple
inches of smashed ginger, a couple scallions
tied in a knot, two tablespoons of liaojiu
a.k.a. Shaoxing wine, and two liters of our
reserved pork poaching liquid from before.
Just bring it up to a boil and down to a simmer,
keeping it at the lowest flame your stove’ll
go so that the fish doesn’t cloud the soup…
and let go for three hours.
After that time, open it up and carefully
skim off any oil on the top.
Then remove your duck and fish – that stuff
makes for a great snack by the way – and
strain your soup.
And then soup component number three is also
good to go.
Next up, the seasoned oil.
If you’ve ever made scallion oil before,
this’ll all be pretty familiar.
Just toss about a third of a cup of that skimmed
lard from before to a wok together with two
inches of ginger, thinly sliced, and three
springs of scallion, or about 20 grams worth,
cut into two inch sections.
Then fry that over low heat for about ten
minutes or so to bubble off any stray liquid
from the lard, then up things to medium and
fry for about ten minutes or so, or until
the scallion gets nice and golden brown.
Now remove those aromatics, and scoop out
your oil.
Ok.
Now for the annoying part: jiunianglu.
So what you’re looking at is quick ferment
of water and actively fermenting sticky rice
with Rhizopus koji - which’s a multi-day
project in and of itself.
So, last week we posted a video on how to
make this stuff, but just in case let’s
give you the TL;DR.
So step one to your jiunianglu will be thoroughly
rinsing 500 grams of glutinous rice until
the water runs clear.
Then strain it, toss in a steamer, and punch
some holes in your rice to help everything
cook evenly.
Steam that for fifteen minutes, then swirl
in another half cup of water to make sure
things don’t dry out.
Steam for another fifteen minutes, repeat
the process, then steam for a final fifteen.
Now take it out, give it a flip, and let that
cool down to 30 degrees centigrade.
Now, we’ll be using one of these packs called
tianjiuqu that you can find either online
or at a most Chinese supermarkets.
This stuff is a fungus called Rhizopus that’s
quite similar to Japanese style koji.
It’s a bit easier to handle but koji can
also be used in a pinch, and for more information
on that route do check out that Jiuniang video
in full.
So just mix two grams worth of your Rhizopus
with 150 grams of bottled water, then spoon
that over your steamed sticky rice.
Give it all a thorough mix, then gently press,
poke a hole in the center, cover, and let
it ferment for 36 hours at 30 degrees celcius.
After that time, take out a hundred grams
of your fermented rice, then mix that with
a hundred grams of bottled water.
Then cover, and ferment again for 24 hours
at 25 to 30 centigrade.
At that point, it’s good to go, and with
that sorted so we can finally start making
some noodle soup… which naturally’ll start,
of course, with the multi-day project of making
fresh homemade noodles from scratch by hand.
Nah just messing with you… we’re gunna
be using dried noodles today – these are
a bog standard supermarket noodle called xiyuanmian,
and FYI Japanese somen noodles are basically
the same thing.
Here we just boiled 100 grams according to
the package, but as you’re boiling your
noodles be sure to rinse your bowl with the
boiling water.
Your serving bowl needs to be really really
hot – in Suzhou they’ll actually keep
them all in a rolling steamer til you order.
So then take out your noodles, swirl them
in a strainer if you’re feeling a bit fancy,
and we can finally assemble.
So combine 300 grams of the duck fish soup
together with 50 grams of the pork poaching
liquid and bring that up to a boil.
Then to your bowl add in a quarter teaspoon
sugar, an eighth teaspoon salt, an optional
pinch of MSG, a tablespoon of your ginger
scallion lard, and scoop your soup all over
everything.
Then add in two tablespoons of your fermented
rice water, sprinkle over a bit of chopped
scallion, and serve that alongside your big
slab of pork together with some julienned
scallions.
Assuming everything’s hot enough, the fat
of the pork’ll just melt in your mouth,
making for a simply incredible soup.
So Daroumian has some variants.
This is the ‘baitang’ – white soup – version
that’s from Fengzhen in Suzhou.
And there’s also this red soup, hongtang,
version… it’s a little bit more popular
in Nanjing, and it’s also one of my favorites.
So right – check out the Reddit link in
the description box for a detailed recipe…
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