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Pork hock noodles, from Sunday's braise

Pork hock noodles, from Sunday's braise

豬手麵
Noodles in soupNoodlesWeeknightGood reheatedEasyhands-on 12 min · start to finish 25 min

“Congee wants its full time on the boil before the rice opens.”

Ingredientsserves 4

雜貨舖Thin egg noodles· the noodle shop usually uses a thick egg noodle; thin fresh egg noodles or dried nests are fine at home4 nests
街市Chinese lettuce· torn into large pieces½ head
雜貨舖Superior stock· to loosen the braising sauce; boiling water works too500 ml
街市Spring onion / scallion· chopped2

Equipment

  • A noodle pot and a pot for the hock. With only one, reheat the hock first, tip it out and cover it, then boil the noodle water in the same pot.

How the time splits

  1. 15 minThe hock reheats in its sauce, lid onhands off
  2. 10 minNoodles, lettuce, the bowlshands on

Method

  1. This bowl starts from a pot of 南乳炆豬手, the 住家菜 page for pork hock in red fermented bean curd. Braise a big pot on Sunday and keep half back for Monday; if you have none, braise one from that page first, which adds about two hours.
  2. The braising sauce sets to a jelly in the fridge. Allow two or three pieces of hock a bowl, put them back in a pot with their sauce and a cup of hot stock, and reheat covered on low until the hock is hot through and the sauce has turned liquid again. Hot liquid melts it faster and more evenly.
  3. Where this bowl goes wrong is the reheating: hock warmed through in a dry pan comes out with dry skin and tough meat. Always in its sauce, always with the lid on.
  4. Boil the noodles in a separate pot, lift them out as soon as they loosen, drain and put them in the bowls; blanch the lettuce in the same water for ten seconds and lay it on the noodles.
  5. Two or three pieces of hock to each bowl, a big ladle of the sauce, and the rest of the stock to thin it to taste. The sauce on its own is too salty, so thin it. Spring onion on top.

Take care

  • Pork, peanuts, soy and wheat (the fermented bean curd, soy sauce and noodles), egg (the noodles), mollusc (oyster sauce). Reheat until it is boiling hot through, not merely warm. Keep the braised hock in the fridge and finish it within three days.

The story

The noodle-shop lunch: two or three pieces of hock, a ladle of sauce, a bowl of noodles. The shop's hock is usually a master-stock one; the home one is 南乳, because a family never set out to make pork hock noodles. They were the second half of Sunday's braise. This page exists so that pot has somewhere to go on Monday, and it is the reason a family was willing to braise a big one on Sunday.

Same kind

Century egg and salted-pork congeeFish-slice congee, cooked in the pourScholar's congee, with the pork offal

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.