Ingredients
1kg pork (enough for 4 person) – In Cantonese parts of pork meat to buy (400gm Kap Sam = Armpit / 300 gm Ng Fah Lam =Below Breast / 300 gm Pai Kwat = Pork Ribs) (RM17 – RM22)
1 big pork bone RM2 – for sweeter broth soup taste
Bak Kut Teh Herbs (Purchase from Herbal chinese medicine shop, tell the seller you need to cook for 3kg of pork) Here in KL these A1 Brand Bak Kut Teh Herbs + additional self pack herbs (ask for herbs sok tei because this is the ones that will give the soup darker color) is around RM8, while Klang is around RM10
(For this Bak Kut Teh herbs, you’ll need 2 packets of bak kut teh herbs with additional self pack, ask them they will pack for you) (Reason I need 2 packet of BKT herbs and additional self pack because i’m going to make Klang style Bak Kut Teh Thick version)
6 bulb of whole garlic (simply smash 1 whole garlic with big knife, the rest leave it as whole bulb)
1 thumb size ginger (smashed)
1 tbsp of salt
2 tbsp of taucu
Soy sauce
Pepper
2 cube size of ping tong (Crystal Sugar)
2 tbsp of sugar
2 tbsp of white peppercorn (ligthly smashed with pestle and mortar and roast little bit in dry wok)
1 kayu manis (cinnamon)
3 star anise
A handful of tofu pok (to avoid oil into your herbs, scoop out BKT soup and boil in another pot when you’re ready to eat)
8 chinese dried mushroom (soaked overnight, cut stem, cut halves, do not use soaked mushroom water into this BKT cause it’ll cover the herbs taste, save that for your other dishes) (put these at the end of 1 hour into your slow cooker before serving)(Reason,to avoid long cooking of mushroom taste empowering your BKT herbs taste)
Additional sauces and snack to go with Bak Kut Teh
You Tiou (Yau Char Kwai) Chinese Fried Crullers – you can purchase in morning wet market RM0.70/pieces
Cili Padi (Slice)+ Red Chilies (Slice)+ Garlic (Diced)+ Spring onion (diced)+ Soy sauce
(Note: There is no need to use oyster sauce or the need to marinate this pork meat first).
(Note: Some people will prefer to use smoked garlic for it’s aromatic taste, if you prefer you can put all smoked garlic or half half – smoked garlic with normal garlic)
Method
- Wash pork meat
- You can cut medium sized chunk of meat of just maintain the whole meat uncut **Do not cut into bite size, because it takes 6 hours of slow cooking, you won’t be able to see your meat at the end of the cooking**
- Prepare a big pot of boiling water, gently put all meat into boiling water (Reason is to remove scum and blood from meat) Scum is the whitish that floats on top of soup this will make your soup very cloudy looking, so this step is very important, boil for around 3 mins.
- Carefully pick up all meat and transfer to another pot with wider bottom (Reason to use wider bottom pot, is to estimate how much water you’ll going to put in and the meat won’t float up)
- Use another pot to boil only the Bak Kut Teh Herbs for around 15 mins to 20 mins, after that pour into wider bottom together with the meat.
- Now, you can only estimate how much water you’ll need to put in here in this step, cover just above meat!
- Put in all the ingredients above garlic, ginger, salt, taucu, soy sauce, pepper, crystal sugar, sugar, white peppercorn, cinnamon, star anise.
- Boil for 30 mins, then transfer to your crock pot or slow cooker, set to HIGH for one hour, then the rest 5 hours on LOW.
- At the end of 1 hour, scoop out top oil from the soup with ladle slowly and put in mushrooms
- Serve with white rice, Yau Char Kwai and cili padi sauces
Important Note:
First day – You won’t be able to taste the true thickness in this Bak Kut Teh, so save more for tomorrow keep into refrigerator lower compartment.
Second Day – Reboil Bak Kut Teh the next day,now you’ll be able to taste the “THICKNESS” of this broth Bak Kut Teh Soup just like Klang version!, if on the 2nd day you need to refill your meat and Bak kut teh herbs, simply buy new pork meat 1kg + 1 pack of BKT herbs with additional self pack and reboil with the previous ones (together with all the stuff inside).
4th Day – You’ll need to keep into freezer compartment on 4th day. (Meat texture will be different once kept inside freezer)
Do not worry herbs will go bad or food poisoning, it won’t go bad if keep inside fridge and reboil back the next day.
If you need to store Bak Kut teh into fridge, make sure it’s not hot coz first you’ll increase temperature in your fridge, secondly, steam water trap will increase bacteria, just make sure it’ not hot anymore then only put into fridge.
Warning: Do not reheat slow cooker pot when you take out from fridge because cold to hot it’ll crack, transfer to stainless steel pot and reboil back until boiling point, then it’s safe to consume.
