Bun Thang Hanoi

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, about 1.4 kg
• 500 g pork bones
• 30 g dried shrimp
• 1 small dried squid, about 20 g
• 2 shallots, unpeeled
• 1 thumb of ginger, unpeeled
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbsp neutral oil
• 200 g gio lua (Vietnamese pork sausage), cut into fine matchsticks
• 40 g dried shrimp floss (tom bong)
• 400 g dried rice vermicelli (bun)
• 4 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 1 large handful cilantro, chopped
• 1 small handful Vietnamese coriander (rau ram), chopped
• 2 tsp shrimp paste (mam tom)
• 2 red chillies, sliced
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• 2 tbsp pickled daikon (cu cai dam), finely shredded (optional)

Before you cook

• Rinse the pork bones under cold running water.
• Soak the dried shrimp and the dried squid in warm water for 20 minutes, then drain them and keep the soaking water.
• Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt until smooth.
• Cut the gio lua into matchsticks as fine as you can manage.
• Slice the spring onions and chop both herbs.

Steps

1. Char the unpeeled shallots and ginger directly over a gas flame or under a hot grill for 5 minutes until blackened in patches.
2. Rinse off the loose char and peel away the burnt skin.
3. Put the pork bones in a large pot, cover them with cold water and bring it to the boil.
4. Boil the bones hard for 3 minutes, then drain them and rinse the pot and bones clean.
5. Return the bones to the pot, add the whole chicken and pour in 2.5 litres of fresh cold water.
6. Bring the pot to a bare simmer and skim off every trace of foam for the first 10 minutes.
7. Add the charred shallots and ginger, the drained dried shrimp, the dried squid and the reserved soaking water.
8. Simmer very gently, uncovered, for 35 minutes without ever letting it boil.
9. Lift the chicken out and plunge it into a bowl of iced water for 5 minutes to firm the skin.
10. Keep the broth simmering gently for another 45 minutes.
11. Pull the chicken meat off the bone and tear it into fine strands with your fingers.
12. Return the stripped chicken carcass to the broth.
13. Season the broth with the fish sauce, salt and sugar, then strain it through a fine sieve into a clean pan and keep it hot.
14. Wipe a wide non-stick pan with the 1 tbsp of oil and set it over low heat.
15. Pour in a thin layer of beaten egg, swirl it to cover the base and cook for 90 seconds until just set.
16. Slide the crepe out and repeat until all the egg is used, then roll the crepes and slice them into hair-thin ribbons.
17. Cook the vermicelli in boiling water according to the packet, then drain and rinse it.
18. Divide the noodles between four wide bowls.
19. Arrange the shredded chicken, egg ribbons, gio lua matchsticks and shrimp floss in neat separate wedges over the noodles.
20. Scatter the spring onion, cilantro and Vietnamese coriander into the middle.
21. Ladle the boiling clear broth carefully down the side of each bowl so the arrangement stays intact.
22. Serve with shrimp paste, sliced chilli, lime and the pickled daikon on the side.