A packet of ‘Bak Kut Teh’ (BKT) was going to expire soon, so I planned ahead to make this special dish for Tuesday dinner. A few ingredients were missing and I had to drive out to get them on Tuesday afternoon when my MIL was over here playing with Brandon. I bought the enoki mushrooms, pork neck bones and ‘tau fu pok’. It was a whole afternoon affair making this soup. As soon as my son napped, I started the cooking.
First I prepared a small pot of boiling water for the Chinese mushrooms to soak. The pork meat (pork sirloin) was cut up the day before and stored in the refridgerator. I boiled a big pot of water to blanch the meat and bones. While the water was boiling, I peeled up a lot of garlics. Then I took them out and put all in a clean bowl of water. And with that, I started boiling another big pot of water for the soup base. I cleaned up the pork bones and meat of any impurities and set them aside.
When the big pot of water started boiling, I added the pork bones and meat into it. Of course, I also threw in the 2 packets of Bak Kut Teh soup base as well as the 1 whole peeled garlic. Next in the cleaned mushroom with the stem cut. I added some dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and salt. When it boiled, I turned the heat to simmer.
Brandon woke up from his nap at around this time. I turned on the DVD to keep him busy. As the BKT is simmering, I prepared the enoki mushrooms, lettuce and ‘tau fu pok’. Again, a pot of boiling water is needed and I blanched all of them in the sequence. As for the ‘tau fu pok’, my intention was to get rid some of the oil by soaking them in the hot water. On the side, I also made blanched broccoli for Brandon, just in case if he chose not to eat the lettuce. The rice was in the cooker cooking at this time.
Wonderful smell of BKT was filling up my kitchen. Yummy! I was getting hungry too. The soup base was alot and I knew we couldn’t finish it in one meal, so I set up another smaller pot and put in all the side ingredients - enoki mushrooms, lettuces and ‘tau fu pok’ and scooped half of the soup base plus the meat into this smaller pot. Once this small pot came to a boil, I turn off the heat and it was ready to serve!
Brandon loves this soup a lot and he finished up every single grain of rice in his plate and even asked for a second bowl of the soup. As I was helping him to finish up his dinner, Hubby was washing up the dishes. Yes, he always finishes FIRST during our meal. I told him to wash everything except for the big pot of soup base as that needed to be cool down before storing.
After Brandon finished his dinner, I went into the kitchen to scoop out the meat and bones of the BKT for storage. As the soup was still hot (not warm), I left the soup in the big pot to fasten the cooling process for both, the soup and the meat. Then I took out a bowl of udon soup that was inside the refridgerator to throw away and also to make room for my BKT. I told Hubby, “This throw away,” passing him the bowl. Then I went to the living room with Brandon as I was still chatting with Hubby over the little window that opened up from the living room to the kitchen.
After a minute or two, I came back inside the kitchen area and I saw the big pot of BKT soup base was no longer on the stove! Of course I was shocked! I went bizzare! I asked him, “What was in your thought when you poured away the HOT soup? Why? Why? Why did you throw it away?” Hey come on, is not that he didn’t know. The soup was still hot and you don’t usually just chuck hot water down the drain like that. And he said during dinner that he likes the soup BEST! And I really wonder what was going on in his mind when he threw out the whole pot of soup that he likes? The leftover could have save me an afternoon of hard work preparing dinner as I can just reheat it and add more enoki mushrooms, lettuce and ‘tau fu pok’. But now with it gone … aiyo … I have to slave myself again for dinner tonite. I was crying and laughing at the same time … really! I just don’t get it why he threw away the soup. He replied me, “I am stupid mar.” That didn’t help to soothe down the fire in me.
And with all this craziness was going on in the kitchen, Brandon thought it was funny and he kept running with me laughing about his Mommy and Daddy craziness. It was his laughter that cool down the fire in me.
And this is not the first time ever he did something like that.
