Fragrant Pork Bone Soup with Winter Melon and Pandan Leaves

Last month during the lunch time at Church, my friend, Yuth made this delicious pork bone soup. It was so light, yet very fragrant and flavorful, I ate 2 bowls of them...haha. I asked him what ingredients did he use for the soup? "secret" he said...later on he told me that his secret ingredients was the pandan leaves and also he didn't use ginger for the soup.
I always love winter melon, I think it's the best match for Chinese pork bone soup. Sadly, I almost chop off my finger one day while trying to cut the hard skin of winter melon...and I haven't cook winter melon again ever since. Yuth told me his tips to cut the winter melon, so instead of trying to cut the hard skin, he told me to use peeler to shave off the skin. I tried it and it was so easy!! I wish I knew this tips earlier, so I can enjoy my favorite winter melon more. So, here's my version of the soup. Yuth only used 1 pandan leaves and he used cilantro on his soup. I skip the cilantro and use more pandan leaves.

Ingredients,
1 pack of pork short rib, chopped
5 pandan leaves
1 bucket of cut winter melon
1 handful of garlic, crush.
salt & white pepper
3 pinch of sugar

Cooking Method,

1. Wash the pork bone and soaked them in cold water for 20 minutes to drain the bloods. If you are in hurry, you can omit this step.
2. Boil water on a big pot.
3. Put the pork bone into the boiling water, let it boil for 15 to 20 minutes. Then you'll see the foam rise to the water surface. We don't want those dirty stuff.
4. Throw out the dirty water, rinse the pork bone one more time, rinse the pot, and put new water to the pot.
5. Boil the water with the pork bone in it one more time. Use High temperature
6. Add the pandan leaves and garlic into the pot.

7. Season with salt, white pepper and sugar.

8. After the soup is boiling, turn down the heat to simmer. Cook with the lid close for 1 hour.

9. After 1 hour, add the winter melon, the continue to simmer for another 30 minutes.

10. The soup is ready when the short rib and winter melon turn soft. The pork meat should be easily fall from the bone when poke with fork.

Pindang Iga / Sweet, Sour & Spicy Ribs Soup

I remember that I cooked this food for my sister while she visited me in Seattle on December 2010, and I  she loved it a lot! and hubby also loves this dish. It's the perfect dish to eat for a rainy cold weather.
Unlike Balinese fishy pindang, this Javanese pindang is very different in taste. This Javanese pindang is sweet, sour and spicy, the unique combination of flavors will make your tongue dancing and keep wanting this food more and more.
This recipe was adapted from Masakan Indonesia Untuk Jamuan

Ingredients,
3 lbs pork neck bone + pork ribs
Olive oil

Sauce Ingredients A ---> blend all the ingredients in food processor
1 tbs galangal powder
1 tsp turmetic powder
1 thumb of ginger
1 handful of garlic

Sauce Ingredients B,
4 lemongrass, smash it.
1 handful bay leaves
2 handful of shallot, thinly sliced.
2 tsp dark tamarind paste, dilute it in 1 cup of hot water
5 ripe tomatoes, sliced large chunk
10 red jalapeno, halves
4 bird eye chili (optional, if you want it more spicy)
3 tbs sweet soy sauce
2 tsp Javanese brown sugar
salt

Cooking Method,
1. Wash the pork bone and pork feet, then soaked them in cold water for 20 minutes to drain the bloods. If you are in hurry, you can omit this step, I did it too sometimes.
2. Boil water on a big pot.
3. Put the pork bone and pork feet into the boiling water, let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Then you'll see the foam rise to the water surface. We don't want those dirty stuff.
4. Throw out the dirty water, rinse the pork bone one more time, rinse the pot, and put new water to the pot.
5. Boil the water with the pork bone in it one more time. Use High temperature
6. Add salt, half of the tomatoes, lemongrass and bay leaves, simmer until the pork bone is soft. Approximately 2 hours.
7. Heat another pan, heat the olive oil on medium high heat.
8. Add the sliced shallot into the new pan, pan fry until it get brownish. 
9. Add the sauce ingredient A and mix it with the shallot until fragrant.
10. Add the cooked mixture of shallots & sauce ingredients A into the soup.
11. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients B into the soup, simmer for another 30 minutes.
12. Keep tasting, the end result should be sweet, sour and spicy. 
13. Serve it with warm steam rice, the authentic Indonesian style :)

Sop Kacang Merah / Pork Bone Soup with Kidney Beans

I remember growing up eating a lot of this soup. My maternal grandma is the best cook in our family, she passed this recipe to my mom and my aunt, so our big family pretty much growing up eating this dish :)
This dish is one of those Indonesian Chinese type of food.
Indonesian Chinese foods are foods that is commonly cooked by Chinese immigrant who lived in Indonesia, so it's not traditional Indonesian food, nor it is authentic Chinese food, there's a lot of awesomely delicious Indonesian Chinese foods that I will share later. The though of Indonesian Chinese foods always reminds me of hometown and my childhood...and writing about them now makes me cry...hehe... :')
I got the original recipe from my aunt, Ikme, thank you for the recipe Ik <3
I edit the recipe according to my own personal taste.
My aunt use the same amount of the pork and the kidney beans, and she also uses carrot on her soup, other that that, it should taste the same :)
Note from my aunt: if you use the dry kidney beans, after you soaked it in the water for one hour, you can cook it together with the pork bones, but if you use the ready to use canned kidney beans, wait until the pork became tender before you put the kidney beans into the soup.

Ps. You can make this soup with pork bone / pork tail / pork feet, according to your own liking. I was using pork bone + pork feet for my soup. The skin from the pork feet is very soft and chewy (not in a bad way), it's so delicious!

Ingredients,
2 lbs pork bones + pork feet
1 pack of dry kidney beans. soaked in warm water for 1 hour prior to cooking.
2 large leeks, sliced thinly. American leek are huge, if you are using the smaller leek, you might need 4 or 5 of them.
green onion for garnish.
salt, pepper & sugar

Cooking Method,

1. Wash the pork bone and pork feet, then soaked them in cold water for 20 minutes to drain the bloods. If you are in hurry, you can omit this step, I did it too sometimes...haha
2. Boil water on a big pot.
3. Put the pork bone and pork feet into the boiling water, let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Then you'll see the foam rise to the water surface. We don't want those dirty stuff.
4. Throw out the dirty water, rinse the pork bone one more time, rinse the pot, and put new water to the pot.
5. Boil the water with the pork bone in it one more time. Use High temperature
6. Add the kidney beans.
7. Wait until the kidney beans became soft.
8. Add the leek.
9. When the kidney beans start to split open, season the soup with salt and pepper, and add couple pinch of sugar to elevate the taste.
10. Your soup is ready when the pork meat is tender, the kidney beans are soft & some of them are split open, and the soup get thickened.
11. Garnish the soup with green onion, it's ready to eat.

For me, I love to put a handful of chopped green onions for a small bowl of soup :D

Pork Bone Soup with Fuzzy Gourd & King Oyster Mushroom

I remember my first time eating the pork bone soup, it was on my visit to hubby's grandparent's house that was 3 hours drive from Seattle. We arrived at night, and hubby's grandma was waiting for us. She served us the pork bone soup, it was so delicious. I remember that she cooked the pork bone soup with the delicious winter melon. I've had been hooked to pork bone soup ever since.
Hubby's grandma taught me how to make the basic pork bone soup, and I had been creating different style of pork bone soup, depend on what I have at home...so this is one of my pork bone soup style, enjoy :)

Ps. I always use a big pot to cook the soup, it would last me 2 to 3 days, remember to put it on the fridge.

Ingredients,
1 pack of pork bone
1 pack of king oyster mushroom (mine got 3 big one) sliced medium thickness.
1 medium size of fuzzy gourd, cubed.
1 handful of goji berry
2 big ginger ---> it's like the equal of 4 to 5 human thumbs
salt

Cooking Method,
1. Wash the pork bone and soaked them in cold water for 20 minutes to drain the bloods. If you are in hurry, you can omit this step, I did it too sometimes...haha
2. Boil water on a big pot.
3. Put the pork bone into the boiling water, let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Then you'll see the foam rise to the water surface. We don't want those dirty stuff.
4. Throw out the dirty water, rinse the pork bone one more time, rinse the pot, and put new water to the pot.
5. Boil the water with the pork bone in it one more time. Use High temperature
6. Add ginger and salt to taste.
7. Close the pot, wait until the soup is boil, then turn the heat to low / simmer.
8. After one hour, start putting the goji berry, king oyster mushroom and fuzzy gourd.
9. Cook for at least another hour and half, or until the meat of the pork bone are soft and easily fall from the bone.