Beef Noodle Soup

Beef Noodle Soup

Beef Noodle Soup 牛肉麵 (niu-rou mian)is an all-time Taiwanese favorite, more so during the winter. Slices of tender beef shank and tendon with flat noodles served as a dish or with soup......

Noodles used can vary from thin or big flat noodles; dried or fresh. There is also the special fresh la-mian 拉麵 or pulled noodles, which can be machine made or 手工 (shou-gong), that is, handmade noodles. Most Taiwanese prefer the hand-pulled noodles.

Shandong da mian

cook noodles like pasta

arrange on a bowl

In this recipe, I used flat noodles (dried). As the name on the wrapper implies, the noodle is of the 山東大麵 Shandong da(big) mian(noodles) variety. Now, I am not an expert in noodles according to various regional areas in mainland China, but I guess Shandong is popular for their flat noodles hence the name. Anyway, in cooking (dried) noodles, it's pretty much like cooking pasta. Let water boil, add oil and salt, drop in the noodles, cook it to al dente, drain and rinse. Place noodles in a bowl. Set aside.Then on to making the soup...

beef & spice bags

inside the spice bag

mga sangkap

For this recipe, I used beef tendon and shanks. These beef cuts can be quite tough and thus needed to be simmered until tender. I don't have a crockpot nor do I have any pressure cooker, so on the whole it took me more than 4 hours to get it tender to my satisfaction (I wanted it to be extra tender because of the kids, especially my 3 yr old, otherwise you probably wouldn't want it too tender).

simmer till tender

reduce stock

add veggies

So here's how I did it:

I boiled the meat, discarded the first boil, boiled it again but this time simmered (low heat) it until tender (more than 4 hrs). Since my husband bought about 2 kilos of shank and 5 pcs of tendon, I decided to just boil everything together to conserve gas and time.

Meanwhile prepare ingredients for your soup. You can choose any veggie available, slice it to desired size (or shape for that matter). You can cube it, julienne it, slice it thin or in chunks you're on your own here. Anyway, for my recipe, I used onions, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, straw mushrooms, bean sprouts (I think you should skip this though), and bokchoy. You can also use celery, ginger, much like the beef nilaga that we have back home. For topping , I used cilantro and fried minced shallots.

Anyway, to get back to the cooking, I got another pot and placed some of tender beef slices I simmered, (how many?that would have to depend on how many are eating) from my wok and added beef stock. Since the stock was already flavored (used spice bags remember?) I just added a bit of the ever-dependable patis (fish sauce) and ground pepper ( no salt was added as the patis was salty enough) to taste.

Got it rock boiling then dropped in all the other ingredients. Now here's the trick. Drop in ingredients according to the time it needs for that particular ingredient to be cooked. Carrots for example, if sliced in big chunks needs longer cooking time, so I'd put it in first. Mushrooms cook real fast so you'll have to add it last. I think you get the point. Oh and don't forget that stone! (clueless?)

When you're all done, pour it over noodles, top with cilantro and minced shallots. and we're done!

the verdict? definitely a hit!!!