Chinese Beef Noodle Soup 红烧牛肉面 Recipes

CHINESE BEEF NOODLE SOUP (红烧牛肉面)

Steps:

• If you aren't cooking the Asian beef stock as well, start by browning the beef. You can achieve this either in the oven or on the stove top. If you have already cooked my Asian beef stock recipe, skip ahead to step 5.
• To brown the beef in the oven, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 C). Cut beef into 1.5 to 2 inch chunks (about 4 to 5 cm). Spread the beef in a roasting pan. Spray a thin layer of oil onto the meat. Roast for 20 minutes. Take out the beef and flip. Cook until the beef turns to an even golden brown color, about 20 minutes.
• To brown the beef on stove top, heat a large heavy skillet with 2 tablespoons vegetable oil until hot. Add beef. Let cook without moving for a minute. Continue cooking until the bottom side turns golden. Flip to cook the other sides, until the beef is evenly browned.
• Transfer the cooked beef to a plate. Add 1/4 cup hot water to the baking tray (or the skillet). Scrape off the brown bits, so you can transfer them to the braising pot later.
• Heat a dutch oven (or a wok) with 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat until warm. Add green onion, garlic, ginger, and Sichuan peppercorn. Cook until the garlic turns a plate yellow color. Turn to medium low heat. Add doubanjiang and tomato paste. Stir and cook until the bean paste releases oil, 2 to 3 minutes.
• Add beef to the pot. Stir a few times to coat beef evenly with the sauce. Add back the brown bits from step 4, if any.
• Add 2 cups water, Japanese sake, soy sauce, brown sugar, curry powder, and cumin powder to the the pot. Stir to mix well. Turn to medium high heat. Cook until almost bringing to a simmer. Turn to low heat and cover. Let the beef cook at a very gentle boil until it starts to get tender, about 1 hour 20 minutes.
• Add veggies of your choice (potato, daikon radish, and/or carrot). Stir to mix well. Cover and cook until both the veggies and the beef turn tender, 20 to 30 minutes.
• You can cook the beef stew one day before serving, store it in an air-tight container in the fridge, and reheat right before serving.
• When you're ready to serve the noodles, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the noodles according to the instructions.
• In another pot, add about 6 cups beef stock (add less stock plus water to dilute, if you're using homemade condensed beef stock. Cook until bringing to a boil.
• Divide beef stock among 4 bowls for serving. Add a few spoonfuls of sauce from the braised beef. Taste the broth. It should be a bit salty and very rich. Add salt if necessary. Mix well. Add noodles, top with a few chunks of beef and veggies, and garnish with green onions and greens (if using).
• Serve as main immediately.

BRAISED BEEF NOODLE SOUP (红烧牛肉面)

Steps:

• First place the aromatics in a piece of cheesecloth tied tightly with kitchen string or disposable/fillable tea filter bags. That's the cinnamon, black cardamom, fennel seeds, star anise, cloves, tangerine peel, bay leaves, white peppercorns, licorice slices, sand ginger, and amomum white cardamon. Phew. It'll be worth it. Trust me.
• Next, rinse off the beef under cold running water. In a soup pot, add 16 cups of water, the ginger, and beef. Bring to a boil and cook for a few more minutes until you see some foam floating on the top of the water. Skim the foam off. You don't want these impurities from the beef making your soup cloudy. Turn off the heat, fish out the pieces of beef, and strain the resulting broth through a fine-meshed strainer, into a heatproof bowl or other pot. Set aside, along with the ginger pieces.
• In another large, thick-bottomed soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the rock sugar, the white parts of the scallion, and the garlic. Cook for a few minutes until the scallions are lightly seared. Add the beef, turn up the heat, and mix everything well.
• Cook for about 5 minutes, and stir once or twice in between. Now add the Shaoxing wine, dark soy sauce, and light soy sauce, and stir everything together well so that the beef is coated in the soy sauce.
• Now add the aromatics, plus the daikon, and the broth and ginger pieces that you boiled the beef in. Bring everything to a boil and immediately turn the heat down to medium. Simmer for 90 minutes. The broth should be steadily simmering where you can see water moving in the pot, but not at a rolling boil.
• After 90 minutes, turn off the heat and let it stand (with the lid on) for another hour. Now your soup base is ready. Reheat, remove the aromatics, and add salt to taste before serving. Just remember, adding salt too early will dry out the beef.
• Cook the noodles according to the package instructions, strain, and transfer to a large serving bowl. Blanch a handful of your leafy greens of choice in the noodle water, and add it to the noodles. Then, ladle in the beef and the soup. Top with the chopped green parts of the scallions you set aside earlier and some chopped cilantro (optional). And if you really can't resist a bit of spice, add a spoonful of chili oil. Wink! Wink!
• Enjoy!

CHINESE BEEF NOODLE SOUP

Steps:

• Cut beef into larger chunks and then place in a large pot with enough cold water. Throw one spring onion and several ginger slices, bring to a boil and then pick the beef chunks out (so there will be no floating dirt on the meat and we can skip rinsing process.) Drain.
• Heat up around 2 tablespoons of oil in a deep stewing pot and fry doubanjiang for half minute over slow fire, then place garlic, ginger, leek onion and red onion in, fry until aromatic.
• Return cooked beef and stir for several minutes until the beef is slightly browned, place tomato wedges and add warm stock to cover all the content. Bring to boil and then slow down the fire and simmer for around 1 hour.
• Pick the beef out and strain the liquid to remove cooked vegetables and spices, add salt to taste (the soup can be slightly salty compare with common soups)and simmer for another 15-20 minutes.
• During this period, cook noodles according to package instructions. You can either serve wide noodles or thin noodles. Transfer noodles to serving bowl, pour in soup base and top with beef. Garnish chopped green onion and decorate with coriander.