[Recipe] Prawn Noodles Soup

The craving for this bowl of prawn noodle soup came suddenly one day; I missed my late dad's prawn noodles soup, he's best at making this! We often teased him that his bowl of prawn noodles would easily fetch $15 a bowl, as it was always packed with loads of good stuff (huge prawns, loads of pork ribs and vegetables), and the broth was simply too good that it's beyond description!

Alas, I never did make it a point to jot down the recipe when my dad was still around, nevertheless, with a tip given by a friend, I managed to make myself a nice pot of prawn & pork ribs broth that was as close as I can get to my dad's recipe.

Preparing the ingredients wasn't that difficult all it took was time and patience. The most important thing of the prawn noodles soup was the broth, so give it a bit of time and "love" you'll yield yourself a wonderful pot of broth.

Ingredients
800gms prawns (legs and feelers trimmed; keep the shell in tact)
500gms prime pork ribs
500gms pork bones
chicken bones of 1 chicken
1 medium size chinese turnip (cut into large chunks)*
1 head of garlic (cut into half length wise; put into a soup pouch)

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50gms fried shallots
2tbsp rock sugar
2tbsp fish sauce
1tsp of dark soya sauce (for the colour)
salt to taste
a bunch of kang kong (aka water spinach)
100gms bean sprouts
2 fish cakes (sliced)
Fresh Egg Noodles (yellow mee)
Vermicelli (bee hoon)

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*note: this is how the secret ingredient looks like :)

Method of preparation

1. boil a pot of water; when water is boiled blanch the pork ribs & pork bones for 5minutes; set it aside once done.
2. in a separate pot (use the pot which you'd boil the broth in), boil 3 litres of water; once water is boiled cook the prawns in the water, this will take about 2-3mins; set the prawns aside to cool down.
3. once the prawns have cooled remove the head and shell (do not discard the shells and heads)
4. place garlic, chicken bones, pork ribs, pork bones, prawn shells/heads, turnip, fried shallots and all seasoning (rock sugar, fish sauce, dark soya sauce) into the soup pot and bring mixture to a boil then simmer for 2-3hours.
5. skim the top layer of the soup and discard the scum 
6. once broth is ready add salt to taste then drain the soup into a separate pot through a sieve; discard turnip, pork bones and chicken bones.
7. boil water to blanch the noodles and vermicelli in a separate pot; use the same pot of water to blanch the bean sprouts, kang kong and fish cake
8. serve by topping the pork ribs, prawns, fish cake and vegetables followed by the broth
9. if you like, you may garnish the noodles with fried shallots and red cut chilli (or chilli powder)  

Enjoy!