Prawn Noodles Soup with Prime Ribs - 虾面排骨汤

I've been "collecting" prawn shells for a couple of weeks now. Each time I cook a prawn dish like my sambal prawn I would keep the shells in a plastic bag and chuck it into the freezer. So when my little freezer compartment is running out of space from all the little bags of shells, I know it's time to try out the prawn noodle recipe! The original recipe is from My Wok Life, but I tweaked it a little here and there.

20 medium – large prawns

Section A
Minimum double the amount of prawn shells and head (the more the merrier!)
50 grams of dried anchovies aka ikan bilis (Chinese translation: 江鱼仔)
2 teaspoon of brown sugar

Section B
300 grams of prime pork ribs
3 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of salt
1 star anise (八角)
4 dried cloves (丁香)
1 teaspoon of ground white pepper
5 cups of water (about 1000 – 1200ml)

Seasoning
1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
3 tablespoons of light soy sauce

yellow noodles, kway teow
Kangkong vegetables, bean sprout and sliced fish cakes (optional)

Garnish:
Fried shallot
Fresh chillies, julienned

TO MAKE THE SOUP
1. To make the pork ribs nice and tender, boil Section B for about 30mins.
2. While the ribs are cooking, stir fry Section A with a tiny bit of oil in a deep wok. Alot of juices would come out of the shells. Just keep tossing them until they are fragrant and all the juices have dried up.
3. Pour everything in the wok into the ribs soup. There will be a layer of dried up prawn juices coated on the wok. That where all the flavours are so don't waste it! Ladle some pork rib soup back into the wok, stir the wok clean and pour the liquid back into the pot of pork and shell soup.
4. Boil the pot of soup. I use a pressure cooker, so 45mins to and hour would be fine. For regular pots, boil the soup for at least 1-2 hours in low heat. Make sure the soup don't dry out.
5. When the soup is done, season the soup accordingly. It's ok to over season just a little because the noodles are bland. Blanch the prawns in the ready soup and set aside for later use.

Assembly!
1. Blanch the preferred amount of noodles and vegetables in a pot of boiling water and put into a waiting bowl.
2. Add other ingredients like prawns and fish cakes and pork ribs.
3. Ladle soup from the pot and pour into bowl through a sieve to catch any shells.
4. Garnish with fried shallots, garlic and fresh cut chillies!