Boneman

Evil Skeleton Hours

  • He/Him

22 | UK | LGBTQ+ | Artist | Gamer | Engaged


Minors kindly do not interact, my profile contains swearing, gore and nsfw themes


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ninecoffees
@ninecoffees

Inflation is absolutely kicking my ass, so I've defaulted to the good ol' country-style recipes from my childhood.

Ingredients:

  • one massive daikon
  • pork ribs
  • corn
  • dashi powder
  • soy sauce

Optional ingredients that costs a pittance, but does wonders for your mental health:

  • carrots (highly recommended -- they're still affordable for me)
  • half a large onion (recommended)
  • tofu (okay, THIS one is a bit expensive)
  • vermicelli
  • ginger (slices or powder is fine. you won't taste this, it's mostly to remove the bad flavours from the pork)
  • those cheap frozen fishballs in the Asian mart freezer section

Step One: Go to an Asian mart.

Okay, let me break down the ingredients. First, the daikon. They're cheap. It's 3 NZD or 1.84 USD for a ginormous one that you won't be able to finish and they don't cost anything because white people don't buy them. They're incredibly amazing for flavour and texture and it's like biting into something with the luscious, sweet texture of a gourd but packed full of your soup's savouriness.

For pork ribs, I'm not asking for premium racks. This is soup/stew, so grab those small cut offs that are incredibly cheap with bone. Trust me, there's more than enough meat on them, and the flavour is still excellent. We're using ribs for the bone--that's where the soup flavour comes from. Don't waste pork belly on this.

Don't overlook the corn; the sweetness and joy in this soup comes from both the corn and the daikon, while the pork ribs provide the savoury flavour. You'll want at least an ear, but grab two if you can for a massive pot. (it's 1 NZD for an ear at my local)

Step Two: Prepping the pork

made with @nex3's grid generator

Grab your ribs, chop em up into small bits, and boil them to get rid of the cloudy scum parts. This should only take like 3-5 minutes if your water is already boiling, and you can strain it out really quick. No need to boil any further, we're just clearing up the soup and trying not to lose too much flavour during this step.

Step Three: The vegetables

made with @nex3's grid generator

LOOK AT THIS BEAST. Peel it, then cut it into quarters at the thickest part and halves at the smaller ends. Throw it in the stock pot/slow cooker/whatever you have.

Now, the corn is a bit tricky because it's actually really hard to cut with a regular kitchen knife. It's incredibly easy with a cleaver (you'll see I bought mine out) cause you can just go WHAM BAM BAM and it's done, but with a knife, I find it best to cut around the entire thing then slice into it while rotating the corn. It's a bit of work, but it's worth it.

Half an onion goes in. You only need to peel it since it'll get removed later.

Add carrots if you can. By golly, they make the soup look so damn beautiful, but it's not a requirement. For my first batch, I didn't use carrots since I had so much daikon leftover.

Add boiling water (non-boiling is fine, but we're trying to speed up cooking, so get your kettle working).

Step Four: Flavouring and cooking

made with @nex3's grid generator

Add some salt, some ginger slices or powder, some pepper.

Dashi powder goes in now. You can do two-three of those tiny satchels that the hondashi brand comes in, or if you bulk bought dashi like me, just eyeball it and shake it in. It's not really a problem, just remember to not be like those crazy Asian moms; DASHI POWDER IS NOT SALT. Don't fix your salt levels with dashi powder, lmao.

I would also add some soy sauce now, minimum three tablespoons. Look, you don't need it exact. You're home cooking, you're buying weird disproportionate amounts from the store, you can adjust on the fly, I believe you. You're not tasting at this step because the ingredients are still raw; we're simply adding some salt now so it penetrates the corn, the meat, and the daikon better. The final adjustment is after cooking.

So, slow-cooker on low for about 4-6 hours.

Pressure cooker on low for about 2 hours, high pressure for 1 hour. (This is what I did)

If you're using a dutch oven, you can even chuck the entire thing in the oven instead of taking up the induction/gas stove for ages. With a stock pot on the stove put to low, let it simmer for a few hours.

Remove the half onion and ginger slices before serving. Salt to taste, you'll likely find that it's missing some umami. That's when the soy sauce comes in. It's okay that it makes the soup darker! It's actually incredibly beautiful once it gets served in the bowl with that lovely, amber-dark liquid.

On soy sauce, I highly recommend you don't get Japanese soy sauce, especially not the ones used for sushi. It just tastes more fishy/fermented and I don't like it for this particular soup. I recommend any Chinese soy sauce (regular, not dark), and I was taught as a child that if you don't know what's quality, then go with something in a glass bottle instead of plastic. It's kinda like olive oil--if you buy olive oil in a colored glass, then you at least know the manufacturer cares about sunlight and heat damage which probably means their product is 'good enough to care'.

Enjoy. Just biting into the daikon will give an incredible burst of flavour and soft texture into your mouth. You'll eat the corn, and I'll tell you now that all Asian grandparents will recommend you suck on the cob (the middle part) because it's got a burst of sweetness from the soup that's saturated it. It's so good, so give it a try before you chuck it away.

Step Five: YOU NOW HAVE TOO MUCH SOUP

made with @nex3's grid generator

THIS IS GOOD. THIS IS INTENTIONAL BY DESIGN.

You now have so much good pork and daikon soup leftover that you can continue cooking with it. First off, the initial batch lasted me four days. With the leftover soup, you can now add carrots and tofu and all the stuff you couldn't fit in the first batch. I used the leftover daikon here too.

(You kinda don't want to cook daikon too much, so if you've got some leftover from the first batch, scoop it out and microwave it for eating on the side. If you keep boiling it, the soft, nice parts are going to melt into the soup and leave you with fibrous ends.)

I recommend adding vermicelli for multiple reasons:

  • it's incredibly hard to screw up vermicelli. You literally boil it for three minutes.
  • it's so goddamn cheap for a pack of 8, and it's very filling
  • it's not overly starchy so if you're lazy, you can cook it in the soup for a one pot recipe. I don't do this though
  • it's hard to overcook it. So if you chuck vermicelli in your hot bowl of soup and leave it on the dining table for twenty minutes because you forgot about it, you'll still come back to it with an amazing texture (cf pasta)

Once again, a reminder that you are cooking, and you are the one who has to eat it. If you don't like vermicelli, don't use it! You can add anything you want to this Asian style soup; I added fish balls and imitation crab meat and a bunch of other stuff to my leftover portions.

Any tofu would work. Just choose the one you like. In the photo, fried tofu is used because my partner likes the texture.

Congratulations, you've fed two people for about an entire week! It also freezes very well (well, except the daikon) so if you have leftovers, you can put it in a gallon bag and just have it sit in the freezer for next time.


Imbion
@Imbion
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