5 spice Pig Maw soup

People say that as we get older, our tastes change and we start to appreciate foods with stronger flavours. Indeed, as a child, I would swear off intestines of any form. Yet in the last 10 years, after an introduction to 'kuay chup', I started liking intestines. I developed a liking pig maw (stomach) soup only in the last couple of years and would look forward to it. Of course it's not the healthiest dish on earth and frankly, neither is it very tasty, but I like the texture of chewing pig maw.

However, I notice that most pig maw soups that I've had are usually quite bland - it is usually just pork bone/chicken stock and pig maw with tonnes of black pepper. Not much taste otherwise, which has always been a 'source of concern' for me. Especially since most soups I've tasted had so much black pepper, it was more like a very peppery soup and not much else, and it's usually to cover the 'soh' smell of the maw.

I thought of my mom's great 5-spice chicken soup and decided to adapt that. I cook this all up in a slow cooker so that the pig maw is not tough. Great to pop this into the pot in the morning and u got lovely soup after a hard day at work! (that's provided u can pry yourself from bed in the morning!)

Ingredients (serves 4)
300g cooked pig maw
300g pork bones for soup (soft bones are great too)
10 cups of water (coffee mugs are great - u can add more water if you want a thinner soup)
1 handful wolf berries (optional, adds sweetness)

Seasonings A
1 shallot, finely chopped
2-cm length ginger, sliced
2 tsp 5-spice powder
9 cloves
4 star anise
2 cinammon sticks
10 black pepper seeds

Seasonings B
2 tsp sugar
2 tbls chinese rice wine

2 - 3 tsp salt (to taste)

Method
1) In a slow cooker, put in the maw and bones. Boil the water and pour it over the maw and bones. This is very important as it will scald the bones and seal in all the juices, and keep your soup clear. Alternatively, I brown my bones in a pan (what they do for ang mo stews) together with the onion and ginger. It takes more time, but adds a nice caramalized flavour to the soup.
2) Put in the wolf berries and Seasonings A and cook for 1.5 hours.
3) Add in the sugar and wine to taste after the 1 hour mark.
4) Add in the salt last (also to taste), about half an hour before the end. You don't want to put in the salt too early as salt is easily absorbed into the food. 1stly, salt causes meats to 'sieze up' and turns it tough. 2ndly, it is easily absorbed into the food and at the end of the cooking time, u can't taste it in the soup anymore, so you end up putting in more. I've been taught to put it in near the end so that you only flavour the soup and it means u add less salt to your cooking overall.

Serve with steamed rice. Lovely.