A short story of Thai noodle part 3/3

Relocating to the Australian outback is a memorable experience, especially figuring out how to feed yourself yummy Asian food that is bought with ease from Thai restaurants in the big cities like Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne. However, I live in Roxby Downs where the only Woolworths in town is a place where you hang out and to do any Asian grocery shopping, you have to travel about six hours south to get to Adelaide. Of course, my life has changed completely because nowhere else in town can I get a favourite of mine, Tom Yum noodle with pork mince.

One of the best thing about living in a small town is I found a very friendly Thai community and we always visit each other over the weekend to cook Thai food together. One of us will come up with a Thai dish that we are all craving for. Noodles are almost always what we select to cook together as it requires a lot of ingredients, take a lot of time and at it is something a few people can make together. Today, I and my friends are going to make noodle soup with a combination of seafood and pork mince (Thai: ก๋วยเตี๋ยวหมูสับต้มยำทะเล). We will try our best to replicate the Sukhothai noodle by adding snake beans or green beans, preserved radish and dried shrimp.

Today Chutiman, our big sister in Roxby Downs, who used to own a popular noodle place in Thailand will show us her secret recipe for a special combination of Tom Yum noodle. I and Naramol will be her kitchenhands to assist with preparing and mainly with tasting.  Let's have a look at all ingredients.

How to make marinated ground pork or “Moo Deng”
A marinated ground pork or “Moo Deng” (Thai: หมูเด้ง หรือ หมูบะช่อ) is a special element that we prepared a day earlier to make our noodle menu look more fancy. Its softness, fluffiness and juiciness make Moo Deng one of our childhood favourites that we always save to enjoy last.

1. Ground pepper, garlic and coriander roots in a mortar
2. Add pork mince with fat and mix it in a mortar, to help make pork mince softer
3. Transfer pork mince to the mixing bowl and add tapioca starch, baking powder, oyster sauce, sugar, soy sauce and salt
4. Use your hand to mix all ingredient together and add some dried seaweed
5. Cover the mixing bowl with cling wrap and leave it in the fridge overnight
6. To prepare them for noodles a day after, make the marinated ground pork into flat and round shapes (diameter around 2-3 inches), boil it in the water until it cooks.
7. Leave them on the side to add to the noodle dish later
   

How to make a pork soup base for Tom Yum noodle
Before making a soup base, we cooked soft pork bones separately in a pressure cooker to make it soft and tender. We will add this ingredient to our soup base later. Now, let’s take a look at how to make the pork soup.

1. Add 10 litres of boiled water to the pot and add some pork bones and a bit of salt, then cook with low heat. This method is to bring most flavour out of the pork bones. If there is some bubbles on the surface of the soup, use a ladle take it out. When the soup is clear, bring the heat up a bit.
2. Add these following ingredients: crushed coriander roots, crushed garlic, dried galangal, slices of white radishes, pickled garlic and pickle garlic brine and slices of dried shitake that have been soaked in water. White radish, white onion and pickled garlic will naturally bring sweetness to the soup.
3. As the soup is boiling again, lower the heat and season it with soy sauce, coconut sugar and seasoning sauce or Maggi
   

How to combine all elements for a single serve

1. Blanch bean sprouts, slices of green beans and thin rice noodles and put it in the serving bowl
2. Boil fish balls, prawns, squid and pork mince. Slice some soft pork bones that has been cooked in the pressure cooker. Put each element in a separate container to make it easy to combine at the end.
3. Make Tom Yum soup by mixing 3 tsp of sugar, 2 tsp of fish sauce, 3 tsp of lime juice, ½ tsp of white vinegar, 1 tsp of chili flakes and 1 tbsp. of crushed roast peanuts in a small mixing bowl. Add some fried garlic with pork crackers, preserved radishes and chopped corianders and spring onions with a cup of soup base we have prepared earlier.
4. Place boiled marinate ground pork, cooked pork mince, prawns, squid, green beans, bean sprouts on top of the noodles.  Pour a mixed Tom Yum soup from previous step into the serving bowl.
5. Garnish with deep-fried egg pastry and some chopped coriander and spring onions.
   

And then we are done, all the hard work for three of us has paid off really well. We had two bowls each and have enough to take home for the next day. There is no strict rules about noodles in term of flavour. As I have mentioned on my previous blog that you can still add some sugar, lime juice, chili flake or fish sauce to personalise your own noodle soup. A whole process of making the special combination noodle might look complicated but don’t be scare of trying it with your friends. This is a great activity to spend time cooking and learning together. It is ok to adjust or reduce some ingredients that you would like to have for your noodles. Just make it your own way and enjoy the delicious Thai noodle dish at home.
Special thanks to Chutiman and Naramol for making my Tom Yum noodle dream come true!!

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Don't miss out on her other posts!
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