What's up everyone?
Today we're making
Bok choy soup with pork!
My name is Randy
And we are the Laus
We're on a mission to celebrate
And pass down our Chinese heritage
One meal at a time
After 50 amazing years as a Chinese chef
My dad's finally retired
And he's here to teach you all of his secrets
To make the perfect Bok Choy Soup
A dish he's made thousands of times
Hello, my friends!
Today, we’ll learn how to make bok choy soup with pork
It'll be very easy to prepare
One of the most popular soups for all of you youngsters out there
Just like the words "cafe" and "chocolate"
Bok choy is a loan word from Cantonese "baahk choi"
Which literally means "white vegetable."
Bok choy is one of the many different types of Chinese cabbages
Cultivated for over 2000 years for its resistance to cold weather
This is a super simple recipe
That my parents make multiple times a week
After you've cooked it
We can keep the bok choy in the soup and eat it as is
Or, often what we'll do is scoop the bok choy out,
Drink the soup and eat the bok choy separately
Next week, we'll be sharing my dad's stir fried bok choy recipe
Along with answers to all of your questions
On how to cook the perfect bok choy
We'll use around a pound of bok choy for this soup
We'll be using 5 oz pork chops, cut into slices
You can add more if you like more meat
Okay, we'll cut the pork first
Cut out fatty parts from the pork
Next, we will cut against the direction of the grain
Cutting it horizontally
Do you see these lines?
They are all lined up like this
Just cut across the grain
The cooked meat won't be as tough when we cut this way
After marinating with cornstarch, the meat will be smooth and tender
We'll slice the pork
See? The grain of the meat is horizontal
So we'll cut across it
Next, we'll be marinating our pork with 1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp oyster sauce, and 1 tbsp water
Stir the mixture until it's fairly even, and add the pork
Using a bit of force, massage the pork for about 30 seconds
To help the pork absorb the marinade
We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com
Along with step-by-step instructions and video clips
To guide you as you make the recipe at home
Before we dive back into the recipe
I wanted to touch on something really important
Which is how to best store you bok choy
In our meal time, my parent share their secrets
From their decades of cooking with bok choy
Is there a way to extend the life of it?
Wrap it with paper before storing it in a plastic bag
With this, you can store it in the fridge for a week
What's the purpose of the paper towel?
To absorb the water
So you want to make it as dry as possible?
Dry, with some small holes
Oh, so there are holes on the plastic
The most important thing is to make sure the veggies are dry
Okay, so you'll set them out to dry after buying?
It's better that way
For bok choy, some times we'll buy 5-6 pounds for a week
Daddy will peel the outer layer of each bok choy after buying
It's around 3-4 leaves of each bok choy
He'll leave the center part untouched
I'll pick the older leaves to cook first
He'll peel the 1, 2, 3 (leaves) and cook them that day
Oh, cook the outer layer first！
Yeah
Cook the outer layer (older leaves) first after buying
-Oh! -Yeah!
Cook the outer layer first, for all the bok choy
Let's say you have 10 pieces of bok choy, peel the outer layer of each
Save the middle part, wrap it with paper
And poke some holes in the bag so it'll last longer
This is so smart!
But the outer layer is good for soup
Because it has more fiber content
It'll be tougher than the middle part of the bok choy
Okay, cause this one, it's gonna get so soft
It's nice in the soup
Whereas the center ones are smaller pieces, easier for stir-fries
The center is good for stir-fries, the outer layer is good for soup
Okay, very good
And now, back to the recipe!
We've finished cutting the meat
So we'll prepare the bok choy now
Some of our viewers asked how we clean the bok choy?
Making sure it's clean, without any dirt
Let me tell you all about it!
When washing vegetables, the leaves should be picked off one by one
And soak them in a bucket of water
We don't need the stem
After picking all the leaves, usually there'll be dirt in the stalk
Soak them in a pot of water and wash the dirt off the surface
If you have time, it's better to soak the vegetables first
For around 15-20 minutes
Soak them and wash again
Once we're done washing, we'll rinse it again with water
Rinse it with water
Rub the leaves to wash off the dirt
Rinse it
See? That makes it clean
It's clean now
Now, we'll cut our bok choy
For bigger leaves, cut the stalk in half
This will make it easier to consume
Like this big leaf here, just cut the bottom part in half
Or you can just leave it as it is
Like this leaf here, you can just leave the smaller leaves as is
Or cut it in half
Okay, we've finished cutting the bak choy
See? The bok choy is clean
Okay, let's start to cook the soup
We'll prepare a portion of about 5 cups of hot water
It's okay if you want to add more
We'll pour the hot water into a pot so it'll boil faster
Next, we'll add a can of chicken broth
This can contains about 14 oz of chicken broth
Also, our stove is set to high heat
We'll wait for it to boil first before adding in the ingredients
Let's wait for a while
While waiting for it to boil, we'll add a few slices of ginger
This will enhance the flavor of the soup
Just 3-4 slices will do
You can choose whether to add it according to your preferences
For those who like ginger, 3-4 slices is enough
The soup tastes better with ginger
Add 1 tsp of oil before adding in the bok choy
Same goes for salt, add 1 tsp of salt
Oil and salt will help the bok choy retain its color
We'll add the veggies in separately
First, we'll throw in the stalks
Because those are harder to cook
They need to be cooked longer
After adding the stalks
How long do you wait before adding the rest?
It doesn't take long, just add the stalks first
When you first add the stalks, the water temperature is higher, right?
By the time you add the leaves, the temperature will be lower
So we add the bok choy after the water boils?
Yes, the bok choy is added after the water boils, understand?
By adding vegetables after the water boils
This helps the vegetables retain their color
If we add in vegetables before the water boils, they'll turn yellow
Because if we cook the veggies for too long
The heat will destroy the chlorophyll in the leaves
So it won't be as good
We'll cover the wok and wait for the pot to return to a gentle boil
Before adding the pork slices
This depends on your setup but it took us about 3-5 minutes
I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our
Wonderful Patreon supporters to help bring this video to life.
If you enjoy our videos and are interested in supporting us directly,
Head on over to patreon.com/madewithlau to learn more!
Okay, the water is boiling
It's boiling, the bok choy soup is boiling
Now, we'll add the pork to the soup
The meat must only be added after the bok choy soup is boiling
Now, we'll add the pork into the soup
Okay, it looks beatiful
So what should we do now?
Chicken bouillon
You can choose not to add it, it's up to you
You can add it if you want the soup to have more umami
You can also leave it out
Add 1 tsp chicken bouillon powder to the soup
After adding the pork chops, once the pot returns to a boil
The soup is ready to eat
This should take about 1-2 minutes
Great, the bok choy soup is ready
Okay, here's our bok choy soup with pork!
Aiyah, it's beautiful!
The bok choy looks beautiful, it's still green, right?
The meat slices look good too
This bok choy soup with pork is ready to eat!
Son, do you want to have a try first?
Come try
Wow!
Taste good?
Uh-huh
Do you like it?
Yeah, it smells so good!
Do you want some soup?