Vietnamese soup stock

I used six chicken backs and two pieces of pork hock. After washing the bones and meat, I boiled both separately for about 10 minutes. Then I drained the bones and put them in a clean pressure pot and covered the bones with fresh water. I boiled the stock with the lid open for about 45 minutes and removed the pork hock (the meat should be soft by then). Then I boiled the chicken bones in the pot under pressure for about 1,5 hours (3 to 4 hours without a pressure pot). After opening the lid I further boiled the stock to reduce the liquid and brought the stock to taste with salt, some sugar and fish sauce.

The stock was meant for bún riêu, crab noodle soup, but I didn’t have most of the needed ingredients. I just improvised and used the plucked pork meat from the hock, fish balls, fried tofu, paksoi and egg noodles instead of rice noodles. The broth itself was amazing. Next time I will have to find crab meat, soy bean oil, minced pork meat and rice noodles. The recipe also calls for pig’s blood but this will be very difficult to buy in The Netherlands.