Vietnamese Pork Tapioca Noodle Soup (Banh Canh Gio Heo) Recipe (with Video)

To cook the pork stock
1. Parboil the pork soup bones and pig trotter with water and heavily salt. This will help remove all the impurities from the bones and make for a cleaner, clearer broth.
2. Drain and clean the bones and pig trotter before adding to a clean pot with clean water. Bring this back to a boil along with a white onion, radish, dried shrimp, dried squid and 1 tbsp salt.
3. Once boiling, remove any foam or scrum from the top and discard. Lower the heat to simmer.
4. After 2 hours, scoop out the pig trotter and allow to cool in a bucket of cold water. This will help prevent browning.
5. After another hour, remove the remaining bones, dried shrimp, dried squid, radish and onion from the stock.
6. Add about 2 cups of clean water to the stock and season with fish sauce, sugar, MSG and chicken powder. Taste and adjust to your liking.
To prepare the bowls
1. To prep, cook the banh canh noodles according to package instructions.
2. Drained the cooled pig trotter and pat dry. Slice into thin pieces for serving. Also slice the fish cakes for serving.
3. For the garnishes, clean and cut the green onion and cilantro.
4. To serve, I quickly blanch the banh canh noodles, pig trotter slices, fish cake and blood cubes in the broth before assembling the bowls. Garnish with green onion, cilantro, crushed black pepper, and fried shallots. Ladle on the broth and serve hot.