Malaysian/Singaporean inspired noodle soup

I got sick over the holidays and I suffered from dehydration.  After being discharged from the hospital, all I wanted was soup.  Noodle soup.  I was still too weak to cook but my mind wanted the taste of the warm broth to re-hydrate me.  The previous weeks, I would stumble up many photos of the Malaysian red broth poured over a pile of noodles.  I wanted some but I was not in any condition to trek to the store to gather the ingredients needed.  I rummage through the fridge and saw there was a lot to work with.

Soup:
1 lb ground pork or chicken
32oz box of chicken broth (strongly recommend if you use ground chicken)
4 cup water
1 golf ball size piece of yellow rock sugar
fish sauce to taste
Annato oil

Vietnamese Sate Sauce
4-5 cloves garlic
2-3 stalks or 2 Tbsp pre-chopped lemongrass
1/2 tsp chopped ginger
1 large shallot
1 Thai chili, finely chopped
Peanut oil

1 pkg rice sticks

Finishing:
Chopped green onions
Cilantro
Chiffonard Shiso leaves
Blanched mung bean sprouts
Fried garlic

In a medium pot, start the water and broth to bring it to a boil.  Drop in the ground meat mixture and reduce heat so that it is a simmer.  While the soup is cooking, let's make the sate sauce to to add flavor to the soup. In a small pan heat up some oil.  Add all the ingredients in except for the pepper and fry until you get a dark paste.  Add more oil if need to make sure that it isn't a dry lump.  When the ingredients are one color add the pepper and continue to fry the sate until it is dry paste consistency.  Check on the soup stock and make sure to scoop out any impurities/scum.  Add the sate mixture to the soup and allow for the soup and sate to slowly cook together.   Add the fish sauce and rock sugar to your liking.  The total cooking time for the soup should be about 20-25 minutes.  Finish with the annato oil for the bright red color.

Serve the soup over rice noodles and top with the great finishing.