By now, some of you may know what "ABC" soup is.

I am not sure how that name came about but in my household, it simply meant pork ribs soup with potatoes, white onions and tomatoes. Add some salt or soy sauce and that's about it. The meat combines with the veg to produce natural umami flavours (and so, I read somewhere) and this explains why this soup is so simple and satisfying.

I am not sure whether you need a recipe for this soup. Perhaps I should at some point.

This recipe is a braised version of this soup. It is more of a stew actually. Cook it all in a pot and serve it with rice. I use my favourite pork ribs cut come from the longer ribs section. In markets here, it costs about 15 to 16 dollars per kg.  

Anyway, here is the recipe.

Ingredients

2 kg pork ribs, cut into 1.5 inch in length
1 kg yellow potatoes
3 sticks of medium-sized carrots
2 large white onions

2 tablespoon light soy bean paste ("tau cheong")
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
15 pieces of white peppercorn
2 tsp of corn flour
500 ml water
2-3 stalks of coriander leaves for garnishing
2 Tbsp of oil

Preparation

1. Peel and cut the garlic into slices. 
2. Peel of the skins and quarter the carrots, potatoes and white onions. 
3. Crackle the white peppercorns. 

Cooking

1. Heat up the oil in a pot. Add the garlic slices.
2. After a minute, add the soy bean paste and crackled white peppercorns. 
3. After  minute, add the pork ribs. Stir-fry for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the soy sauce,  sugar and water. Stir and simmer. 
5. After 15 minutes, add the potato and carrot chunks.  
6. After 10 minutes, add the white onions. Simmer for another 10 minutes. 
7. Test the ribs to make sure the meat is tender enough. I the meat if falling off the bones, I will consider it overcooked. 
8. Garnish with coriander leaves and eat with rice. 

Feel free to vary the ingredients. Add white radish, tomatoes, mushrooms if you like. Instead of pork ribs, chicken can be used too. It is a simple and homey dish, suited for the simple and comforting dinner dinners.