Chinese lotus root pork bone soup is one of my all-time favorites of Cantonese soups. Most Cantonese meals feature a bone-broth based soup that has been simmering for hours. It can be simmered with root vegetables, green leafy vegetables, and a variety of dried medicinal herbs and fruits.
Why parboiling bones is important
Bones have lots of blood and impurities in them. To make a nice and clear bone broth, boiling them at high heat and then rinsing out impurities is essential. That is a critical step for any clear broth, but especially this lotus root pork bone soup.
How to parboil bones for lotus root pork bone soup
Set a pot of water to boil. There should be enough water to submerge the bones completely.
Once the water is boiling, add in the bones (e.g., chicken, beef, pork). Allow blood and other impurities to boil out into the broth for at least 5 minutes.
Then remove the bones from the heat and pour out the liquid. This is not suitable for making a broth so it is discarded. Then rinse the bones in cold water, using your hands to remove any coagulated blood and other impurities. Repeat as needed.
Once bones are clean, then add into a pot with new clean water to start cooking a broth.
Chinese Lotus Root Pork Bone Soup
Equipment
- 1 stovetop pressure cooker
Ingredients
For parboiling pork bones
- 1.5 lbs pork neck bones
- 2 quarts water
For Broth
- 3 lotus roots peeled, trimmed, and sliced into 1/4 inch thick pieces
- 1 quart chicken broth
- 3 quarts water
- 1/3 cup fish sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 handful dried jujubes
- 2 inch piece of ginger smashed
- 1 tbsp sugar
For Boiled Peanuts
- 1 cup raw peanuts
- 1 quart water
Instructions
- Take a large stockpot and fill it with 2 quarts water. Place on high heat to boil When water has boiled, add in pork bones and parboil for 5 minutes to allow impurities to cook out into the water.
- Then pour out the liquid from the pot and run the bones through running water. Using your hands, scrub off and rinse off all impurities. Set clean pork bones aside.
- Add pork bones back into the pot. Fill the pot with 1 quart chicken broth, jujubes, ginger, 3 quarts water, salt, and sugar. Turn on stove to high and bring water to a boil. Once the mixture is at a boil, allow to simmer for 2 hours.
- While pork broth is simmering, place raw peanuts into a pressure cooker and fill with 1 quart of water. Close the lid and heat the pot on high until the pot begins to whistle. When it begins to whistle, turn the heat to the lowest setting and allow to simmer for about 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, place the pressure cooker under the kitchen faucet and rinse with cold water until the lid has de-pressurized. Then open the lid.
- Strain the liquid and remove cooked peanuts. Add peanuts into the pork bone broth.
- Prep lotus roots. First peel the skin off of them. Then cut off the end pieces. The roots have dark end pieces with rough fibers. Using your knife, peel these ends off as well as any dark parts of the lotus root. Cut the lotus root into 1/4 inch slices. Then add in lotus root pieces to the pork bone broth and allow to simmer with peanuts for at least 1.5 hours.
- When the lotus root is just tender, add fish sauce to taste.
