Nigel Slater’s pork broth with noodles and greens

A stone-cold winter’s afternoon and there is a cast-iron pot of rich pork broth puttering away on the hob, the smell slowly percolating through the house. The broth has, at its heart, a few pork ribs with quite a few rags of meat left on, and a bone I begged from the butcher. There are a handful of free-range chicken wings in there too to give body to the broth and lend a silky texture. A couple of dried flowers of star anise has sent enough aniseed into the air to make the kitchen smell like a Chinese restaurant and I couldn’t be happier.

There is no hurrying such matters. It takes time to get the goodness from bones. Once made, the broth will keep in the fridge for several days but I often use it the same day for deep bowls of soup to which I add noodles, greens and tufts of herbs. The wings have done their work in the broth, but I have been known to drain and dry them, trickle them with olive oil and chilli sauce and toast them under an overhead grill.

Serves 2-3
pak choi 150g
pork broth 1 litre (see above)
cooked noodles 200g (I like to use soba but any work well)
pork rib bones 6, reserved from the broth, below

For the broth (makes about 1.5 litres):
pork rib bones 750g, thick, with a little meat attached
garlic ½ a head
water 2 litres
chicken wings 500g
carrots 2 large
onions 2
dried shitake mushrooms 10g
thyme sprigs 6
whole black peppercorns 9
bay leaves 3
star anise 2

To finish (optional):
toasted sesame oil to taste
chilli oil to taste
coriander and mint leaves a handful

Preheat the oven to 180C fan/gas mark 6. To make the broth, cut the pork rib into individual bones and put them in a roasting tin, tuck the unpeeled garlic cloves among them and roast for 45 minutes to a deep golden brown.

Pour the water into a large, deep pan with the chicken wings and bring to the boil. Scrub and roughly chop the carrots. Peel the onions, roughly chop them, then add them and the carrots to the broth, together with the shitake, thyme sprigs, peppercorns, bay leaves and star anise. Lower the heat so the water simmers gently for about 50 minutes, watching its level carefully and topping up with water if necessary.

Tuck the roasted pork bones into the stock and add the roasted garlic, still in its skin. Pour a ladle of the stock into the empty roasting tin, stir any delicious sticky bits of pork or roasted juices left in the tin into the stock with a wooden spoon, then pour it back into the broth. Simmer for a full 60 minutes, partially covered with a lid, making sure to top up with water if necessary. (You are aiming for a good 1.5 litres of finished stock.)

Carefully strain the stock. (I usually let it cool a little first, then lift out the bones and vegetables with a draining spoon and tongs, and set aside before straining the stock through a sieve.) Season the broth generously with salt.

For the soup, steam the pak choi for 2 minutes in a small steamer basket over a pan of boiling water. Bring the stock to the boil. Put the cooked noodles into three deep bowls, tuck in the cooked pak choi and the reserved rib bones, then ladle in the steaming broth. You can season with a few drops of sesame or chilli oil as you wish, and scatter in a few leaves of coriander and mint.

This article was originally published on 18 February 2024