Shredded pork & preserved vegetable noodle soup (雪菜肉絲麵)

(serves 4)

As i start to blog more of our Cheng family favourites, I realised that mum was not joking when she said she just tries to make whatever is most simple. I guess that makes sense when you're working full-time and a mother of three! I am still very thankful that mum bothered to make fresh home-cooked meals every night as i have come to realise that this is not necessarily the norm!  

This is another dish that mum used to make ~ in hindsight I can see it was probably more of an 'emergency' dinner where she just used what was in the pantry with a bit of pre-marinated frozen pork... however we had no idea at the time and it was super yummy! No harm in a bit of simple cooking :) 

Prep time: 20 min
Cooking time: 20 min

Ingredients
500g pork neck
400-500g preserved vegetable/pickled cabbage with bamboo shoot (雪菜)
3-4 bunches bok choy
300g thin rice or wheat noodles (or we use a Shanghai-style 'enriched' noodles that are medium thickness and flat)

1 L chicken or pork soup (or can use 2-3 tsp chicken bouillon with 1L water, or use chicken broth mixed with water)
1/2 T oil

Marinade;
2 T soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp shaoxing cooking wine
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cornflour
1/2 tsp ground white pepper

Method
1. Cut the pork into thin 0.5cm x 3cm strips. Marinate in soy sauce, sesame oil, shaoxing wine, salt, sugar, cornflour and ground white pepper. Leave for at least 20 minutes, or ideally overnight.

2. Rinse the preserved vegetable in hot water to reduce the saltiness.

3. Boil a pot of water and place the noodles in to cook for 3-5 minutes until soft. Drain and rinse with cold water to avoid the noodles sticking together.
4. Heat a pan on medium heat, add oil and then add the pork strips and preserved vegetable. Stir-fry for 3-5 minutes until the pork is cooked. Set aside.
NB. If you're feeling lazy, you can skip this step and just place the pork and preserved vegetables straight into the soup, however it is tastier this way!

Can prepare this 2 ways; stir-fry the pork and preserved veg (left) or just throw it all into the soup (right)

5. Prepare the bok choy by removing the stem and cutting into bite-sized pieces. Wash and dry.
6. Bring the soup to boil. If no soup is available, then add 2-3 tsp of chicken bouillon powder to 1L water to create a soup base. Alternatively, you can use a can of chicken broth and dilute with water.
7. Cook the bok choy in the soup for 3-4 minutes, then remove from the soup and place into serving bowls.
8. Bring the soup back to boiling point and place the noodles in to reheat.
9. Serve the noodles and soup into serving bowls and top with the pork and vegetable mix.