Vietnamese Butternut Squash Soup with Pork Rib-Canh Bi Do voi Suon Heo

It is really hot yesterday and today here in Springfield Oregon.  Yesterday it was 102 oF.

 Soup sounds good everyone, we are going to eat some water like Oprah said.   This recipe is adapted from Nancie McDermott via Curiouscuisiniere .  Any orange flesh squash is ok to use instead of butternut squash.

Ingredient Serves 4 with cooked rice.

1 pound pork rib, cut into 1 inch cubes. washed and drained well
4 cups water
1 small yellow onion, cut in 6 wedges ( I use it to add more flavor to the soup)
1/2 teaspoon salt,
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon fish sauce (3 crab brand is used here)
1 pound butternut squash, cut into 1/2 inch cubes/wedges about 2 heaped cups
1 or 2 green onion, thinly sliced diagonally

Direction

1.  Put pork ribs in a large pot, cover with 4 cups water.  Bring it to a boil, add onion.  Then adjust the heat to keep it boiling gently for about 5 minutes.  Scoop off any scum floating on the surface of water.  Then cover, adjust the heat to simmering for 15-20 minutes.  It helps to keep the liquid clear without cloudy.  
2. Add squash, salt, sugar and black pepper to the pot.  Bring it to a boil, then simmering again until the pork is tender and squash is soft about 30-40 minutes.  The pork should be easy detach ed from the bone with chopsticks or teeth.  Remove  and discard cooked onion if you want to but leave them alone is fine too.   Stir in fish sauce,1/2 green onion.  Ladder soup to a large serving bowl, sprinkle some more ground black pepper and green onion.  Serving with cooked rice and/ or other side dishes.

Check out more details of working with squash in other squash soup in this blog too.