Prawn and Pork Rib Noodle Soup

It's all about the stock baby! Or in more colloquial terms, "Hae Mee baby!"

Simmer for hours and hours and hours and you'll get a rich, thick, cloudy broth of porky prawny goodness.

The aromatic herbs give the broth a deep character, and the garnishings complete the dish with a spicy and fragrant kick.

It's a bit of a bitch to prepare, so save this for weekends. Be warned, the soup will need to simmer for about 5 - 6 hours, so start in the morning for dinner.

This will essentially be my Friday project, so I'm hoping GBF, Miss Z, Mr DB, Miss A and Mr P will enjoy my toiling over a hot stove. Well, not quite, more like watching TV and golfing as I let the slow cooker do it's job.

Serves 4

• 24 prawns
• 500g pork ribs
• 200g of lean pork
• 80g ikan bilis (dried anchovies)
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 star anise
• 5 cloves
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 1.2 litres water
• 300g yellow noodles
• 300g bee hoon (rice vermicelli)
• 50g kang kong, blanched
• 50g beansprouts, blanched
• 2 fishcakes, sliced
• Fried shallots
• Sliced fresh red chillies
• Chilli powder

Remove heads from prawns and shell, keeping the tails on. Reserve them for the stock. Make a deep slit along the top of the prawns and remove the black vein. Set aside in fridge.

In a large pot, heat the oil over high heat. Chuck in star anise, cloves, cinnamon, peppercorns and five-spice powder and sizzle till fragrant. You may want to use the pot lid as a shield, those spices have a tendency to crackle and pop something real bad.

Add pork ribs and lean pork and sear, then add prawn head and shells. Add the ikan bilis and garlic and sprinkle over the brown sugar. Fry for a further 5 minutes, then add water.

Bring to a boil, then turn down heat until the broth is gently simmering. At this point, you can also transfer to a slow cooker. Let simmer for 5 - 6 hours until the pork ribs are falling apart tender.

Remove the meat and strain the broth to remove the herbs, spices, prawn shells and other grimy bits. Skim off the scum from the surface as well.

Return the pork ribs to the broth. Slice and set aside the lean pork.

To assemble the dish, cook the yellow noodles and vermicelli in boiling water, drain and place in bowl. Add some beansprouts, kang kong, fishcake slices and lean pork slices.

Boil raw prawns in hot broth till just cooked and arrange 6 prawns in each bowl. Add a few pieces of pork ribs and ladle hot broth over the entire majestic scrummilicious damn thing.

Garnish with heaps of fried shallots, sliced red chiilies and a dash of chilli powder.

What can I say? I'm in prawny porky heaven.

Other items on the Childhood Comforts menu:

• Mee Swa Soup 
• Nonya Kaya