As some of you might know, i love Pork. It ranges from Bacon to Ribs to Char Siew.
One of my favourite of them all is Bak Kut Teh. As we all know there are 2 types (Peppery & Herbal). I have yet to find a really good Herbal Bak Kut Teh in Singapore. If anyone knows, please give me suggestions and i will be glad to try. When i head to KL, it’s a must have and my uncles will say that i should bring back a mini-bucket of soup as its sooo good. After trying out a couple in KL, i have nailed on a stall along Jalan Ipoh.
As i always like to try cooking something way out of my league sometimes i thought that i should try to make Bak Kut Teh. I thought if i can make it at home which taste similar to what i get, it will be a great accomplishment.
By chance, while i was getting some stuff from Giant Supermarket, i saw a packet of Klang style Bak Kut Teh which definitely caught my attention. I started thinking if should actually give it a shot this weekend or keep that for a later time. The next day i confirmed that i will give it a shot during the weekend.
I went back to Giant and picked up the Klang Bak Kut Teh spice by Claypot. The instructions for cooking it seemed rather easy to follow.
- Boil water
- Add Garlic bulb & packet spice and boil for 30 mins
- Add pork and boil for 1.5hr
- Add soya sauce
I followed these steps with some variation. After i added the pork and around the 1 hour mark a tasted it and realised that i wanted to make it a little peppery and added about 2 tablespoon of white pepper. I also added about 2 teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoon of light soya sauce. Do note that the volume of liquid for this was about 4 litres.
I also added a load of mushrooms to this as i love ’em. I added about a packet of shitake, 2/3 of a packet of white mushroom and Enoki mushroom. I just let them boil for about 20 minutes.
As i love to have a side dip of chilli, i cut up some chilli padi (used the green ones) with a mix of dark and light soya sauce. When cooking the rice, i substituted the water with the bak kut teh broth. This enhanced the flavour of the rice.
When i tasted it, i was satisfied with the end product. This was quite close to what i had in KL. It was simple and yet easy. For those of you who are like me and love the herbal Bak Kut Teh, you should try this out and let me know how it is.