Slow cooking Pig stomach with gingko nuts soup

My first attempt

There is neither autumn nor winter in Singapore.  But the wind still brings with it the scent of seasonal change.  Over here, the wind is blowing stronger and it is getting colder.  Of course the rain has helped to lower the temperature.  But the wind here brings with it a distinctive autumn/winter coldness.  Mum calls it the northern winds, or 北风; a term I remember hearing very often as a child, nearing the end of each year, in late October all the way to mid-January (sometimes stretching later).
It is during such seasonal change from hot and wet to, well, cold and wet that I remember drinking this, pig stomach with gingko nuts soup.  I suppose gingko nut is generally associated with desserts.  

The flowery sweet scent of the gingko nuts and pandan leaves mingling together always remind me of Chinese New Year.  Mum would make this dessert in a slow cooker, sweetened with rock sugar and red dates, on Chinese New Year Eve.  We will eat this as a way to usher in the lunar new year.  Besides this simple dessert, the gingko nut is also used in one particular savory soup in my family.  Pig stomach with gingko nuts soup was my maternal grandfather's favorite.  I wonder if this soup sounded strange, but to me, it is a taste of childhood.  Every year-end school holidays, I would spend a week or two at Ah Gong's house.  Aunt was taking care of him then, and she would make it a point to make this soup for him.  Come to think of it, maybe it was made for me.  Ah Gong knew that I loved this soup...

A couple of weeks back, I bought a pig stomach from the butcher in the wet market I always go to.  Actually, cleaning out pig stomach is not exactly an attractive kitchen activity.  I remember pig stomach as being one of the most difficult offal to clean beside the small and large intestines.  When I was young, I would watch Mum clean out this nasty smelling piece of organ, nose pinched tight.  I couldn't walk away from the smell, as I was Mum's helper, passing the lime and flour, part of the repertoire she used to get rid of the smell.  After I got hold of the stomach, I bought a bunch of limes, ready to battle it out with the smell.  But to my surprise, the all too familiar stench wasn't there.  There weren't those bits and pieces of undigested things you would expect to find in a pig stomach if I had bought it at least 15 years ago.  The offal I bought was pretty clean, and clean-smelling too. 

The first attempt of this soup using the slow cooker went pretty okay, but the taste was far from how I knew it.  I did not put enough white peppercorns so it was not spicy enough.  Apart from this, the soup also lacked a certain punch.  The gingko nut, which were those vacuum packed ready to use type, did not taste right.  I added some lotus seeds too.  These were softly done but still the whole thing lacked some "umph" that my tongue was used to. I guess ready to use gingko nut was not the best choice for this particular soup.  So I went in search of fresh gingko nuts, those that you have hammer the hard shell away, peel off the thin film of skin and de-core.  I do not like processing these nuts.  I did not enjoy processing them when I was a child.  But, being Mum's best (read "only") helper, I had processed countless little gingko nuts.  

Attempting to de-core

Wanting to re-introduce this soup to the family in its original authentic flavor, I bought about 100g of gingko nuts and got my girl to help with processing.  It was actually an enjoyable one.  My girl was excited about cracking the nuts with the pestle.  She liked the de-coring part too.  

Successfully decored one nut!

Luckily, it was a small quantity, and luckily too, the child found it challenging to peel off the thin film of skin as perfectly as she could.
The second attempt in this soup has a better result.  More white peppercorns were added, together with some small cloves of garlic.  Threw in two large chicken thighs to make the soup richer.  The soup is tasting more like the one Ah Gong loved, rich with a hint of gingko nutty scent and heat from the white peppercorn is felt on the tongue.  For the second attempt, instead of adding lotus seeds, I added something else.  I am sure not what these beans are called in English.  Since it is called 珍珠豆 in Chinese, perhaps pearl beans would be the simplest way to translate it (an absolutely non-creative manner of translation I have chosen ^_^).  This is how the beans look like.  

Little pearls peeking out from their pods

I love the contrast of dark and light pink hues.  The pink and white pattern made the beans look really delicious before cooking, but unfortunately, once cooked, the pattern disappear, leaving just lightly pinkish looking beanies.  The beans should not be overcooked because they simply disintegrate (and disappear into the soup).  If cooked just right, the beans will remain whole, skin intact but softened with a powdery soft center.  I have yet to achieve this  as some of the beans disintegrated.
I liked the second attempt much better.  The Hubby gave his favorable comment too.   The problem lies with the kids this time.  They loved the soup, this is evident from the way they slurped up the liquid.  But I think the more they slurped, the spicier it got and the Tiny Man could not finish his portion.  I might have added too much gingko nuts too.  The Tiny Man complained that the soup tasted slightly bitter.  However, having said that Tiny Man could not finish his portion, it was just about 5 tablespoons left...  I think he was just full.


Pig stomach with gingko nuts soup
(original recipe from my Aunt back in the early 80s, recreated and cooking time adjusted for my slow cooking project)

My second attempt

1 pig stomach (small size)
2 chicken thighs (including the drumsticks, remove skin)
100g gingko nuts*
100g 珍珠豆 (pearl beans)
3 small cloves of garlic
30 seeds of white peppercorn, crushed
1.2L water


Method
1. Clean the pig stomach.  Ready cleaned ones are available from the supermarket.  Blanch chicken thighs and set aside.
2. Place crushed white peppercorns and garlic cloves in a stock pack (this is available from Daiso for $2, and no I am not working for Daiso).  It makes removing the garlic easier and prevents biting into bits of white peppercorns when chewing meat or stomach.
3. Place whole pig stomach (do not cut yet), blanched chicken thighs and stock pack from (2) into slow cooker.  Add water, turn temperature to LOW and cover with lid to cook.
4. Cook at LOW for 6.5 hours.  Remove chicken thighs, turn to HIGH, add the gingko nuts and pearl beans and cook for another 3 hours.^
5. Before switching off the cooker, remove the pig stomach, slice it into about 1cm wide and return to cooker.  Add salt to taste, switch off the cooker.

Notes:
* It is better to process the gingko nuts in advance.  Try to do this step one or two days before making the soup.  Marinate the cleaned nuts with some sugar and freeze it for later use.  Marinating with sugar gives the center of the nut a bouncy texture.  Aunt, Mum and Mother-in-law said the same thing, so I guess this has some truth.  The nuts did come out bouncy in the center.  Thaw the nuts before popping them into the slow cooker.  
^ Cooking for additional 3 hours was too long for the pearl beans.  Some of those beans disintegrated, leaving behind only the skin.  Next time, need to adjust it to 2 hours.