← Nouns Cooking · Vietnamese

Ingredients

• 800 g pork ribs or neck bones, cut into pieces
• 3 l Water
• 3 tbsp Dried shrimp, soaked in hot water for 10 min, drained
• 300 g Minced pork
• 170 g jar of crab paste in soybean oil
• 4 Eggs, beaten
• 1 tbsp Fish sauce
• ½ tsp Black pepper
• 1 Shallot, minced
• 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 2 Shallot, sliced
• 1 kg ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges
• 3 tbsp Ketchup
• 3 tbsp Fish sauce
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp salt, to taste
• 1 tsp fermented shrimp paste (mắm tôm or mắm ruốc), mixed with a little water
• 200 g Fried tofu puffs, halved
• 500 g rice vermicelli (bún)
• 200 g Bean sprouts
• 1 Lettuce, shredded
• 1 bunch mint, perilla or Vietnamese balm
• 3 Spring onion, sliced
• 2 Lime, cut into wedges
• 2 Bird's eye chilli, sliced

Method

1. Cover the ribs with cold water, boil for 5 min, then drain and rinse. Put them back in the clean pot with 3 litres of water and half the soaked dried shrimp and simmer gently for 45 min, skimming any foam.
2. Meanwhile, pound or finely chop the rest of the dried shrimp and mix with the pork mince, crab paste (with a little of its oil), eggs, fish sauce, pepper and minced shallot. It will be loose and wet.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat and fry the sliced shallots for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 min until softened, then stir in the ketchup.
4. Tip the tomatoes into the broth and season with the fish sauce, sugar, salt and shrimp paste. It should taste tangy, savoury and a little sweet.
5. Bring the broth to a gentle simmer and drop in heaped spoonfuls of the crab mixture. Don’t stir: leave it for 10 min until the curds float to the top, set and are cooked through.
6. Add the tofu puffs and simmer for 5 min. Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to the packet and drain.
7. Divide the noodles between bowls, ladle over broth, tomatoes, crab curds and tofu, and serve with sprouts, lettuce, herbs, spring onion, lime and chilli.

Tips

• Jars of crab paste in soybean oil (gạch cua) are sold in Asian grocers; they give the soup its colour and taste. Contains crustaceans.
• Shrimp paste is pungent: start with a little and let people add more at the table.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Vicky Pham Hungry Huy