My family doesn’t consume pork, thus this alternative. This version of Bak Kut Teh is the brainchild of my late mother, after multiple trials with other proteins which resulted with this as the best substitute for pork.
Other alternatives such as chicken and lamb exist, but none can come close to how hearty but light the broth gets with oxtails. Oxtails are a little more expensive, but I assure you that it is totally worth trying.
It is incredibly simple to make this dish, mostly because my mother used a spice packet bought from supermarkets here in Malaysia and Singapore. She tried a few other brands but it didn’t turn out as good.
I checked the spice packet’s ingredients, and they had quite a number of herbs and spices. I’ll list them here:
Cinnamon (15%), Angelica Pepper (12%), Aralia Cordata (10%), Sinensis (10%), Star Anise (10%), Pauranti (10%), Cigusticum (10%), Radix Rehmanniae (10%), Rhizoma Atractylodis (5%), Liquorice (5%), Rhizoma Lingustic (3%).
So, this recipe for Bak Kut Teh is based on the Malaysian kind, which has a herbaceous flavour. It is darker, amber like colour cause of the soy sauces, and has less of a peppery flavour as compared to the ones I’ve seen around in Singapore, which is clearer, and peppery.
I usually eat it with rice, along with blanched iceberg lettuce with oyster sauce and char koay thats soaked up some of the soup. Don’t forget the birds eye chilli with soy sauce as a dip!
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 3 hour 30 minutes
Difficulty level: 2.5/5
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg oxtails
- 6 to 8 whole garlic bulbs, stems removed
- 1 packet of A1 Bak Kut Teh soup spices
- 2 1/2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- Salt and white pepper to taste
- 1 pack enoki mushrooms
- 10 shiitake mushrooms
- 1 packet dried beancurd puffs/tau pok (usually about 145g)
Sides
Vegetables - Iceberg lettuce
- 1 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
- Fried garlic and/or fried shallot oil
- You Tiao/Char Koay
Instructions
First, wash the oxtails with salt, rub it all over them, and then rinse thoroughly.
Proceed to place the oxtails into a large pot, fill with water till all the bones have been covered. Boil the oxtails uncovered for 1 hour.
Prepare the garlic bulbs at this point, rip out the stems in the middle of the bulbs, and peel off any excess garlic skin, give it a rinse, set aside.
Once the first boil is done, drain the water out, then add in water again. Bring to a boil, then add in the spice packet, along with the oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and sugar. Add in the garlic bulbs.
Low boil everything for 2 1/2 hours, or till the oxtails are fall off the bone tender. You’ll see the meat from the oxtails pull away from the bones but you gotta check for tenderness before you stop boiling it. No one likes a tough oxtail!
Once the oxtail is tender, add in salt and white pepper to taste. I usually add about 1 teaspoon of white pepper towards the end to prevent any bitterness.
At this point, scoop some of the soup out into another pot. Add in the enoki, shiitake and tau pok in, boil it for about 5 minutes.
Cut up the char koay/you tiao, ladle on some soup for it to absorb.
For the lettuce, just blanch them, put them on a plate, pour the oyster sauce and some soup onto them, then top with fried shallot and fried garlic oil.
Serve with rice and the chopped chilli padi + soy sauce on the side.
I freaking love this dish so much, if I could eat it every day, I would.
The flavours of this dish invokes great memories of my late mother, and it reminds me of her tenacious efforts of making the best versions of foods for us even if it took her multiple tries to perfect it.
Do email me at thehantamcook@gmail.com or reach out to me @thehantamcook on Instagram if you have questions!
The Hantam Cook 