This is a double pictorial recipes showing how I cook a 24-quart pot of pork bone broth and using some of the broth to make a quick and simple napa cabbage soup for my kids while I can freeze the remaining pork bone broth for future use.  Cooking soups with pork bone broth are my kids-favorite. I used this pork bone broth to cook a variety of soups, hot pot, banh canh, and udon noodle soup.

• Prep time: 30 minutes
• Cook time: 2 – 3 hours
• Serving: about 17 quarts of pork bone broth

Ingredients:

For the 24-quart pot of pork bone broth – 

• 6 to 7 pound pork bones*
• 4 yellow onions
• 2 chunky ginger roots
• 1/2 cup Louisiana dried shrimp
• 1/2 cup dried squids
• 2 large daikons
• 4 + 1 gallon water
• 4 Tbsp salt
• 7 Tbsp sugar
• 1 cup soaked shiitake mushrooms (optional)

Note: I used pork neck bones and knuckle bones. For this pictorial, I added shiitake mushrooms but I think I won’t next time but just add it whenever I cook certain soups with a desired mushroom flavor.

For the napa cabbage soup –

• 4 quarts of reserved pork bone broth
• 1/2 pound premium crab meat or imitation meat
• shredded napa cabbage
• fresh boiled quail eggs
• fried shallots

Direction:

1.  Parboil the pork bones for 10 minutes on high heat.  Strain, rinse out the blood clots. Prep the ingredients. Soak the shiitake mushrooms, peel the daikons and onions.

2.  In a 24-quart stock pot, put the parboiled pork bones and all the other ingredients into the pot except for the salt and sugar.

3.  Bring the stock to a boil, then lower heat to medium high, skim off the scum as much as possible.  Once the broth looks clear, add the salt and sugar, and lower the heat to medium-low heat and simmer for an hour or until the onions and daikons are softened.  Discard the mushy onions and daikons.  Scoop the pork bones out and debone the meat.  I added a gallon of water to fill up the pot. Simmer for another 30 minutes.

4.  Let the stock cool down and transfer it into quart size containers to freeze.  I reserved about 4 quarts into a smaller pot to cook a quick and simple napa cabbage soup for my kids.

5.  To cook the napa cabbage soup with this pork bone broth,  I boiled and shelled quail eggs, shredded the napa cabbage, and shredded the imitation crab meat. I would use Costco’s premium crab meat next time.  Anyway, add those ingredients into the four quarts of pork bone broth I transferred into a smaller pot.  Bring the soup to a boil and serve it with my kids’ choice of pasta. They chose shells pasta this time.  Sprinkle fried shallots on top per serving. Add fish sauce to individual servings if needed.   Enjoy!