Bak Kut Teh Recipe (Pork Bone Tea Soup)
October 20th, 2006 | Malaysian Food | 19 Comments
A good food photograph, beautifully composed and captured, is like fine art; igniting both appreciation and salivation. And the internet is my own personal art gallery. When I crave street food, I stare at my posts here, here, and here about Penang hawker food and salivate over the pictures (in all modesty, it’s more the memory of taking them). When in need of a sugar rush, I hop over to Nordljus or Kuidaore. And sometimes I simply want to eyeball pretty and delectable food, that’s when I end up at Chubby Hubby.
Just last week I found this yummy Bah Kut Teh post on his website, and I completely fell prey to my strong artistic appreciation–and hunger–for this delicacy. I immediately rushed out to the pantry, dug out my pre-packed Bak Kut Teh herbs and started to cook up a clay pot of this hot, boiling, and aromatic soup (zoom in the picture and you can see the steam!).
Bah Kut Teh or Pork Bone Tea is a Chinese soup dish. Infused with herbs such as Dong Quai, Cinnamon, Star Anise, and loaded with pork ribs, dried Shitake mushrooms, tofu puffs, and heaps of garlic, this soup fills the kitchen with evocative scents. Bah Kut Teh needs a couple hours of slow boiling and the end result is concoction perfumed with a sweet herbal and earthy flavor. It’s best cooked and served in a clay pot and eaten with plain white rice, yau char kway (Chinese crullers), a dish of stir-fried vegetables such as Choy Sum (Chinese Green) in oyster sauce, and a small plate of chili plus soy sauce condiment.
If you make Bak Kut Teh at home, do save a bowl or two as your breakfast the following day. The interplay of these herbs, spices, and ingredients usually reaches its height the next morning and you will find that overnight Bak Kut Teh tastes even better than freshly made. Slurp the soup and savor each drip of the essence until there is no single drop left (I think that’s what Ansel Adams would have done, if Yosemite was edible!).
Intensely flavorful and hearty, Bah Kut Teh is certainly my cup of tea.
Recipe: Bak Kut Teh
Ingredients:
1 pack of pre-packed Bak Kut Teh herbs
1 lb of pork ribs
2 garlic bulbs (photographed above)
6 dried Shitake mushrooms (soaked and cut into halves)
A handful of tofu puffs
Seasoning:
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
A few dashes of white pepper powder
Salt to taste
Condiment:
4-5 bird’s eyes chilies
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Indonesian ABC sweet soy sauce
Heat up a claypot of water until it boils. Add in the garlic bulbs, pre-packed Bak Kut Teh herbs, pork ribs, mushrooms, tofu puffs and boils in low heat for about 1 – 2 hours. Add in the
seasoning and boil for another 5 minutes. Serve hot.
Rasa Malaysia recommends pre-packed Bak Kut Teh herbs and spices from Veng Tatt Soon (荣德信) in Penang.
If you would like to purchase Bak Kut Teh spice packs from me, please email me.
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I went to Penang 1st time in my life two weeks ago, and I didn’t have much time to eat around. Your article definitely gives me useful info about where I can eat during my next trip to Penang again. Thank you so much.
Let’s exchange links. Do let me know if you are interested in a friendly link, thanks again.
Bak Kut Tea, some vegetables, and rice, I can eat that for days.
The more I read this blog, the more I feel hungry… what a mouth-watering blog…keep up
sayang, it’ll be good to blanch the pork ribs first. looks good but the shiitake mushroom will kill the herb taste. go slow on that. keep it up. make me drool….chuckle!
Did u cart that claypot all the way from Penang? just curious … anyway, BKT ingredient is just like VISA card, don’t leave home without it!
Hey Mike! I knew u were gonna say that! no mushroom in BKT eh?
Chris – that’s exactly my idea of food blogging, to make readers hungry! Just kidding. LOL.
Foodcrazee – yes, I hear you, but I soaked the mushrooms for hours to get rid of the mushroomy taste…hmm, but I didn’t write it down on my recipe…gotta change that. ;)
Audrey Cooks – No, we can actually find Claypot in the US, so I bought it here. Hehe.
you know, the only thing i like about bah kut teh is the soup! yep, never like all the other ingredients at all.
lucia, I agree with you. It’s the soup that drives me crazy.
Lucia and Chris,
Correct! But I also like the Tofu Puffs, mushrooms, etc. I like it that with it goes so well with white rice…
I’ve always liked the Malaysian name for this dish. But I must disagree. It’s not Pork Bone Tea. It’s Pork Bone Awesomeness.
- Chubbypanda
I was looking for this recipe ever since i saw it on chubby hubby’s site. Thanks!
Has anyone got any idea how can i get those spices in London? It’s my absoluty favourite dish – and just run out of bah kut tea! If you know where I can buy them or order them on line, please e-mail me on kat_wcz@yahoo.co.uk
Hi every one,
I live in London. I miss Malaysian food very much. Could any one tell me where to get Malaysian Food in london. Specially Bak Kut Teh (Dark sauce). Yum Yum…
How lovely!Beautiful cake.
How lovely!
Your work is the Japanese is not very great!
I have links to your site.
We hope to link my site please.
ICE CREAM JAZZ～SWEETS in Japan～
Went to Kota Kinabalu for the very first time this past spring, one of my most memorable food was bak kut teh. Thanks for posting this recipe.
This Bak Kut Teh sounds interesting. Thank you for sharing bak kut teh recipe with us all.
BKT taste good with you char kwai, yum yum.
I just got back from Penang, I already miss Bak Kut teh. :(
I’m going to have it for dinner tomorrow though! Yay!
Where do you go for your Bak Kut Teh, I have to say that Zealand is very good.
Also had a very good one in Cameron Highlands!
I am making Bak Kut Teh right now, but will turn it off before I go to bed and start again in the morning, it is already delicious, I can’t wait until it is ready.
To the person in London who wants the herbs, go to Google put in Bak Kut Teh then look at what the Wikipedia link has to say about Bak Kut Teh herbs, then you can write them down and go out and find them at your local Asian market. The writer offers to sell them to us, but I don’t know if that means overseas?
Mmmmm … the smell of this floating around my house is heavenly.