**The Art of Cooking Thai Soup**

As we begin to cook this traditional Thai soup, it's essential to understand that balance is key. The dish is predominantly salty and sweet, so we need something to counteract those flavors. That's where pickled mustard greens come in. These tangy, crunchy veggies will add a much-needed sour element to our soup. You can use any kind of pickled vegetables you have on hand, but Asian grocery stores usually carry them. The acidity of the pickles will cut through the richness of the dish and create a harmonious balance of flavors.

Next, we need to incorporate some protein into our soup. In Thai cuisine, eggs are often used in soups like this one because they absorb the flavors beautifully. However, if you're concerned about overcooking your eggs, don't worry! In Thailand, we like our eggs cooked firm and slightly underdone. By cooking them for 20 minutes, we allow the flavor to penetrate deep into the egg white and yolk. If you prefer a more done egg, just cook it for an additional couple of minutes. Make sure the eggs are fully submerged in the simmering broth.

While the eggs are absorbing all that delicious flavor, let's take care of our main protein source – pork feet! These unassuming ingredients have done their job by now, so we can remove them from the pot to make room for our final additions. Don't worry if they're a bit tough; they'll add depth and richness to our broth.

As we near the end of cooking time, let's take a step back and assess what we've got brewing in this pot. It should be a hearty, aromatic stew with plenty of flavor. The key is to taste as you go, adjusting the seasoning accordingly. Too much salt can be unforgiving; it's better to err on the side of caution and add more water if needed.

Once our soup has finished cooking, let's scoop out all those wonderful herbs and spices that have infused into the broth. We'll reserve them for adding a final touch to our dish before serving. Now, it's time to taste and adjust the seasoning one last time. With a perfect balance of salty, sweet, and sour flavors, this soup is almost ready.

The finishing touches are what make this dish truly special. In Thailand, we serve our soup with steaming hot rice, which helps to soak up all those delicious flavors. But that's not all – we also add some crispy pork skin on top, which adds a delightful textural element. The skin becomes soft and almost melts in your mouth as you take each bite.

And finally, for the perfect accompaniment to our soup, let's prepare a simple chili vinegar dipping sauce. This condiment is a staple in Thai cuisine and adds an extra layer of flavor to our dish. All we need are some vinegar, chilli flakes, and minced garlic – it's easy to make and always a hit.

With all the elements in place, our soup is finally ready to be devoured. With each spoonful, the tender meat, crunchy pickled greens, and soft pork skin will transport your taste buds on a culinary journey through Thailand. So go ahead, take a bite, and let me know what you think!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enSawaddee ka welcome to hot thai kitchen today i am making street food something called Kao Ka Moo  and it's been requested so many times by so many people Kao means rice and Ka Moo means pork leg  so it's a pork leg stew served over rice and in my top 5 rice dishes video the one that I filmed in  Thailand actually talked about this as being one of the top 5 you must try when you go to Thailand  it's not as difficult as it might seem it just takes a little bit of time you can definitely  do it let's get started so even though this is technically a pork like stew you don't have to  stick with pork ok this the sauce is what's really good here and so it'll work with beef shank it'll  work with lamb shank it will even work with dark meat chicken so whatever you like go with it  but I'm going to do a pork leg which is what's traditional and your butcher might call it pork  shank or pork hock if you have a choice get the hind leg it has more meat than the front leg so  what I've done here is I just seared the outside a bit and it's an optional step you don't have to  do it but what it does it it promotes browning improves flavor but more importantly it renders  out a lot of the fat underneath the skin and so when you go to stew it there's less fat so if you  think that's too much work don't worry about it but if you do want to sear it make sure it's very  very dry and that you've got some sort of a splash guard because the oil does tend to splatter quite  a bit I'm going to just put that right into pot and stew by the very nature of it very easy you  throw everything in the pot and you let it go pretty much traditionally what we also do is we  put in the the foot of the pork what do we call kaki there's a special term for pork foot and  the foot even though it doesn't have a lot of meat has a lot of connective tissue that makes the soup  make the stock really really delicious so I'm going to put that in if it breaks you out don't  worry about it but because I'm putting the foot in it allows me to use water instead of stock if  you're not going to put in the foot then I suggest maybe you use pork stock or chicken stock as a  base and then just cover it with water or stock whatever you're using that's good in goes with  the seasoning some golden mountain sauce which is just a kind of soy sauce if you don't have it  can't find it you can use Maggi or you can use regular soy sauce I've also got some soy sauce  I'm not going to put in everything I wanna save a little bit to adjust at the end boy stur sauce  at this point I'm going to put some sugar some palm sugar you can also use cane sugar rock sugar  sometimes used for this dish so let this go and let it come to a simmer let it go for about 30 to  45 minutes and we'll we'll get back to it so it's been about 45 minutes and it's already smelling  really good there's just a little bit of scum on top as you can see I'm going to skim that off and  this is why I didn't want to add all my herbs and spices because then it would make this job a lot  harder the two most important herbs in Cal Como is cinnamon and star anis okay and then in addition  to that I've got some Szechuan peppercorns which are these little things and I know it's got this  citrusy peppery smell is really hard to describe I've got some cracked white peppercorns and some  dried shitake mushrooms they're going to give this rich mommy savoriness into the soups I'm going in  with all of this stuff and then I'm also going to add some cilantro roots garlic and galangal  a Santa Rosa looking a little wet because it was previously frozen which you can totally do if you  don't have a steady supply of cilantro roots one seasoning that I had forgotten about earlier is  dark soy sauce we're going to put that in and I'm just noticing that now because the color is not  quite as dark as it should be so dark soy sauce this is it's primarily for color but it's also  got some molasses in it so it's going to add an interesting deep rich flavor you basically  add it until you've got a color that you like that's looking good for now and you can always  adjust later all right so now is when you got to leave it for another two and a half hours and you  also what I like to do is cover this because I am going to let this go for like two and a  half hours I don't want the liquid drying off and there's also a theory out there that if you  let it open then all the smell of the herbs and spices escape into the air this way you kind of  trap and force them back in I don't know how true that is but I'm going to go with it so I'm about  20 minutes away from being done and this place is smelling amazing I've got two more things to go  in here first eggs cow cow is always served with hard-boiled eggs and the secret is you first get  it to medium boil so these are actually medium boiled i boiled it for eight minutes and then  I'm going to let it finish cooking in this for another 20 minutes okay the second thing going  in is pickled mustard greens now because this do is really rich and predominantly salty and sweet  I need some something that's sour and crunchy to balance everything else is Thai food after all  is all about the right balance of flavors you can get this at Asian grocery stores but through this  you can use any kind of pickled vegetables it's crunchy and sour so sour kraut will actually work  for this or if you got pickled carrots pickled means whatever pickle pickles you have it'll work  for this as well let's check out our stew mmm oh so so good so in goes my eggs now I know if you're  thinking you know let the eggs cook for another 20 minutes it's going to be like overcooked  boiled eggs which there is a point there but in Thailand we actually like the eggs for this dish  to be really firm and and this 20 minutes going to allow all that flavor to absorb into the egg  so that's actually what we like if you don't like that just let the egg simmer for a couple minutes  until it becomes it goes from medium boil to hard boiled make sure the eggs are submerged now this  I actually rinsed it off it came in the pickling juice and that's just going to be too much so I  rinse it off with some just some cold water and just going to let this simmer so it absorbs all  that flavor as well and you don't have to put that much in you can just put in however much  you want to serve and at this point what I'm going to do is I'm going to take out my pork  foot because I'm noticing the eggs not the eggs don't have a whole lot of room to sit in so just  take it out to make room for the X because the foots done its job at this point anywaythis is pretty much done and look at that doesn't that not look like a feast so I'm just taking all  the good stuff out and then what's left in this pot is the sauce the good stuff that I'm going to  pour over my rice so I'm going to go in with this handy thing here and just scoop out all  the herbs and spices and then I'm going to do a final taste adjustment of the sauce to make  sure that it's spot-on a little more salt you definitely don't want to over season it  in the beginning because then the only way to fix it is to add more water but by doing  that you're also diluting the concentration of the spices and all the aroma mmm yes mmm  so you're looking for salty followed by sweet with really prominent aroma of the cinnamon and  star nice and then all the tartness is going to come from the pickled mustard greens that  I've got going on so now all I have to do is plate everything on rice because after all this is cownow in Thailand the big deal about this dish is the skin the skin is like the best part because  once it's been cooking it gets all soft and practically melts in your mouth and because  it's on the outside its absorbed most of the flavor from the soup so it's super super good  now in Thailand it also comes with this chili vinegar sort of dipping sauce you can pour over  I will include a recipe for that it's a snap to make it's just vinegar chilli and garlic mmm that  meat is so tender even though it's quite rich the pickle that crunchy tartness of the pickle  just balances everything out I can eat this a few times a week maybe not every day but a few times  a week if you give this a try let me know how it goes the recipe is on Hawkeye comm send me  a photo on Facebook Twitter Instagram and I will see you next time for another delicious tiny you\n"