Slow Cooked Bamboo Shoot Soup 腌笃鲜 Yān dǔ xiān

Step 1

Soak Jinhua Ham for at least 2 hours in warm water. Then discard the water. If using other ham, skip this step.

Step 2

Cut 300g of pork belly to the desired shape. Put pork belly in a pot of water andturn on the heat. When it starts boiling and white foam can be seen, reserve the pork and discard the water. This step is very common in Chinese cooking to remove odour, blood and other things like the foam seen.

Step 3

Make a few slices of ginger and tie the spring onion into a knot. Throw in the soaked Jinhua ham, blanched pork belly, ginger and spring onion into a pot of fresh water (using claypot is more traditional, and the flavour may be different). Make sure the water is enough to cover the ingredients.

Step 4

Stew on low heat, covered, for 1 hour.

Step 5

Prepare the Tofu Sheets by cutting a small rectangular shape for every piece of tofu knots (百页结) you are making. Fold it in half, twist it, then make a knot. You can use as many as you want, but I made about a dozen.

Step 6

Cut the bamboo shoot into the desired shape. If using packaged bamboo, boil them in water for 3-5 minutes to remove the sour taste from oxalic acid.

Step 7

Put in the tofu knots and bamboo shoot into the stewing pot. Top up water as needed. Let it stew for another hour to two hour.

Step 8

When the hour is up, taste the soup and adjust the saltiness accordingly.

Step 9

Take out the ham and slice to the desired shape.

Step 10

Serve. Use tofu knots and less photogenic bamboo shoots as a base to prop up the meat and garnish.