Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day!

As we moved overseas, we had no prior knowledge of the celebration of Valentine's Day in our home country. But when we arrived in Singapore, we took notice of young couples celebrating Valentine's Day since the country was well developed.

Instead of celebrating over 20 years of marriage as an aging mother on Valentine's Day, my plans for the holiday are different than most: in which I take the liberty of making a nice meal for my immediate and extended family would enjoy.

A fond memory I have is of my father persuading my sisters and me to eat out often. In several instances we preferred to go eat Bee Hon Soup (a Rice Vermicelli Soup dish with pork meatballs, called Kyay Oh), but our mother overruled our choice and naturally, our father would agree to make her happy, so we usually ended up at a generic Chinese restaurant.

On this long weekend in which Valentine's Day comes together with Presidents' Day, I plan to make this soup in honor of the loving memories we cherished during our teenage years.

Vermicelli Soup with Pork Meat Ball (3 serving)

Ingredients

Prep 1. For soup stock

2 lb      Pork Neckbone (or spare rib)
2 slices ginger
2 tsp    light soy sauce
1 tbsp  Sugar
Salt to your own taste
(Optional: carrot, celery, parsnip to make pure vegetable sweetness)
0.5 tsp White pepper

1. In the 6 qt pan, add above all ingredients with 4 qt of water then boil it with high heat.

2. When it starts boiling, turn down the heat to medium and let it simmer for 2 hours.
( Every soup stock taste better next day if we save in fridge)

Prep 2. For meatball

1 lb     Ground Pork
1 tsp   White pepper
0.5 tsp Black pepper
1 tbsp  Sugar
1 tsp    Salt
2 tbsp   Corn Starch (Binding ingredient for meat)
0.5 tsp  (MSG optional)

1.  In a clean dry bowl, add above ingredients and seasoning together.

2.  Mix it thoroughly with your hand or use mixer to blend in all together.

Prep 3. For other toppings

6 cooked frozen fish ball (thawed)
6 cooked frozen pork ball (thawed)
6 pieces  firm tofu (1 cubic inch)
6 pieces  cooked quail egg (peeled)
3 cups    rough cut Gai Choy (Chinese vegetable)
1.5 cups  1 inch cut Chinese Chives
3 counts Egg (optional)
( boiled pork stomach, pork Kidney, pork liver such as pork organs are optional)
( Pig organ soup is famous delicacy authentic food in Asia)

Instructions

1. In the 2 qt size soup pot, pour 1 qt of soup stock into the pot and boil with high heat.

2. When it starts boiling, add 1 cup pre-seasoned minced pork ( ground pork) into the soup pot with the spoon one at a time. Then cover the pot and let it boil for 5-10 minutes.
( It also depends on how you want to cook the meat.)

3. Then add 2pics of fish ball, 2 pieces of hard-boiled quail eggs, 2 pics of tofu let it boil again for 3 more minutes.

4. Season the soup with salt, and sugar to your own taste before step 5.

5. Finally,  add the greens ( 1 cup Cut Gai Choy and 0.5 cups cut Chinese chives). After adding green, on top of the vegetable add 1 cup presoaked vermicelli.
then let it boil again for 5 minutes.

6. If we choose to add egg,  we may add the fresh egg together with vermicelli.

7. When the vermicelli is tender enough to chew,  pour everything into the serving bowl.

Every individual serving soup bowl, we need to make it individually in each soup pot.

(Note: If we use pig organ, the time of cooking may be different.)
( Sri Racha Chili Sauce is the best paring dipping sauce. )