Khao Poon Nam Phuong

This is a noodle soup, that isn't really a soup. You only use the broth to "wet" your noodles and vegetables. It's more like a vermicelli bowl. It's packed with veggies, ground meat, pork skin and a whole lot of flavor. It's another one of these MUST HAVE dishes my mom makes. Total comfort food.

Ingredients:

10 cups of Water

6 dried Galange Root

1 tbsp Salt

2 lbs Ground Pork

1/2 tbsp Fish Sauce for the broth 2 tbsp for the meat mixture

14 oz cooked sliced Pork Skin

3/4 cup Roasted Sweet Rice Powder

1/2 head of Cabbage shredded

1 bunch Green Onions chopped 2-3 inches

1 bunch Cilantro loosely chopped

1 bunch of Mint

2 Carrots shredded

Bean Sprouts

1 cup Roasted Peanuts chopped

1 package Vermicelli Noodles

Bowl Seasoning:

Lemon

Crushed Red Peppers

Sugar

Fish Sauce

Instructions:

1. Put the 10 cups of water, galange root and salt in a large pot and bring to a boil.

2. Form the ground pork into 6 patties and drop into the boiling water for 20 mins.

3. Cook the vermicelli noodles according to package, drain and set aside.

4. Take a small pot and boil some water, you'll need this to warm up and soften the pork skin. I usually buy this already precooked and frozen, so we are just trying to defrost a bit, maybe about 1 min or so. Drain and set aside.

5. After 20 mins of boiling, keep the broth and set aside, take out the pork patties and add to a mortar and pestle or large bowl and start to pound to break up the meat and release some of the juices.

6. Transfer the ground meat into a large bowl, add in the peanuts, pork skin, roasted sweet rice powder, 2 tbsp fish sauce, salt to taste and mix well.

7. Now it's time to make your bowl, I add the desired amount of noodles, veggies, meat mixture and add in lemon, crushed red pepper, sugar and fish sauce. I also take a little bit of the broth and drizzle on top to wet the noodles a little bit. Mix well, taste and adjust to your preference!