Pepper pork stomach and chicken pot

Ingredientsserves 6

Equipment

• A stockpot of 6 litres or more
• A muslin soup bag for the peppercorns, so nobody bites on one
• The back of a knife or a scraper, for the membrane and fat on the stomach

How the time splits

1. 25 minTurn the stomach and scrub it twice with cornflour and salthands on
2. 15 minBlanch from cold and scrape off the white membranehands on
3. 5 minToast the peppercorns in a dry pan and crack themhands on
4. 1 hr 30 minThe stomach and pepper simmerhands off
5. 10 minSlice the stomach, put the chicken inhands on
6. 30 minSimmer until the chicken is cooked throughhands off

Method

1. Clean the stomach. Turn it inside out and trim off the fat on the surface. Add 2 tablespoons of cornflour and 1 tablespoon of coarse salt and scrub hard with your hands for three or four minutes, until the slime turns grey, then rinse. Turn it right side out, scrub the outside the same way and rinse. Do the whole thing twice, until it no longer feels slippery and smells of nothing.
2. Blanch it. Put the stomach and the pork bones in a pot of cold water with four slices of ginger and the wine, bring it to the boil and boil for five minutes, then lift them out and rinse under cold water. Scrape the white membrane and any remaining fat off the stomach, inside and out, with the back of a knife, and rinse again. This is where the pot goes wrong: skip any part of the scrubbing or the blanching and the whole pot smells of offal.
3. Toast the white peppercorns in a dry pan over a low flame until they smell good and begin to crackle, crack them, and tie them in the soup bag. Untoasted pepper gives heat with no fragrance.
4. Bring a big pot of water (about 3.5 litres) to the boil and put in the whole stomach, the pork bones, the pepper bag, the red dates and the rest of the ginger. Boil hard for ten minutes, then turn it down, cover, and simmer for an hour and a half.
5. Lift out the stomach, cut it into thick strips and return it to the pot with the chicken. Bring it back to the boil and simmer for another half hour, until the chicken is cooked through with no pink at the bone.
6. Add the beancurd sticks and taste before you salt it; if the pepper is shy, add a little ground white pepper. Pour the whole pot into the hotpot and take it to the table. The stomach and chicken are eaten first, with a little soy.
7. Once they are eaten, the peppery broth is the hotpot base. Top it up with boiling water, not more salt, and after every top-up wait for a full boil before raw food goes in.

The short route

• Asian butchers sell pork stomach frozen, already cleaned and blanched. It still needs one scrub with cornflour and salt and one blanch at home, but that halves the job.
• For the broth, use boxed chicken stock let down with half as much water, with the toasted, cracked white peppercorns, and simmer the stomach and chicken in it for an hour.
• A peppery pork-bone hotpot base packet from a supermarket or Chinese grocer, brought to the boil with water, with the cooked, sliced stomach and the chicken added.

What goes in this pot

• The stomach and chicken: eaten first, with a little soy
• Dried beancurd sticks and tofu skin: they soak up the pepper broth
• Pork liver: thinly sliced, at least three to five minutes at a full boil, until there is no pink in the middle
• Pork balls: a minute more once they float
• Enoki and shiitake: in early; enoki needs at least two minutes
• Lettuce: last, eaten as soon as it wilts
• Rice noodles or thick noodles: to finish

What to put in, and for how long ›

The sauce plate

Chilli soySha cha and soy

Safe at the table

• Indoors, an induction plate or an electric hotpot is the safe choice. Australia’s gas safety regulators say butane cartridge stoves are for outdoor use only, because of the risk of carbon monoxide. If you do use one indoors, as Hong Kong homes do, keep it well ventilated, and never in a small or closed-up room.
• With a portable gas stove, never use a pot wider than the pot stand, about 20 cm at most unless the maker’s instructions allow more, and never one that reaches over the canister compartment. Never put two stoves side by side, and never leave one burning.
• Fit and remove the canister away from any flame or heat, with its notch facing up. Check for leaks with soapy water first, and do not use a stove that leaks or is damaged. Never put the stove on another cooker (an induction plate especially) or on anything hot, and put nothing between stove and pot that the maker did not supply: no foil, no extra stand.
• Buy a stove certified for Australia, set it on a level surface that will not burn, never on glass, and do not run it longer than the maker’s instructions allow. Keep sprays, lighters and paper well away. When you finish, turn it off, take the canister out and store it somewhere cool, dry and ventilated, never in a car or in the sun.
• Keep raw and cooked apart: use a separate pair of chopsticks or a slotted spoon for raw meat and seafood, and never eat from them.
• After topping the pot up, wait for it to come back to a full boil before anything goes in.
• Chicken, pork, liver and seafood must be cooked through before eating. Sliced pig’s liver needs at least three to five minutes at a full boil; Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety advises at least five minutes for seafood; clams boil until they open and then three to five minutes more, and any that stay shut are thrown away. Enoki boils at least two minutes and is never eaten raw.
• For pregnant women, children under five, older people and anyone with a weakened immune system: beef until no pink remains, and seafood for the full five minutes.
• Raw meat plates stay out no longer than two hours. Leftovers go into the fridge within two hours, keep no more than three days, and are reheated only once, until boiling hot.

Take care

• The broth has pork and chicken in it; the beancurd sticks contain soy; the soy in the saucers contains soy and wheat (gluten).
• Keep raw stomach and raw chicken away from other food, and wash your hands, the board and the knife after handling them. Cook the stomach and chicken right through, with no pink at the bone; pork liver is eaten only when there is no pink in the middle. At the table, wait for a full boil after every top-up before raw food goes in.

The story

Pepper and pork-stomach soup has long been a winter soup in Hakka and Cantonese homes. Hong Kong people often say they took it up as a hotpot only in recent years, eating across the border in Shenzhen: the stomach and chicken come first, and the peppery broth carries the rest of the night.

Same kind

Clear chicken brothHong Kong satay brothPeppery pork-bone broth

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.