beef noodle soup
by michelletranny
Last night L-T and I joined our asiany forces and made a beef noodle soup that I’m really proud of. I got the idea from this Traditional Beef Ho Fun soup they have at Yippee Noodle Bar (the best noodle bar in Cambridge). It’s the closest thing I’ve tasted to pho since I’ve been here, except they put thick chunks of beef, pak choi and ho fun in it and serve it with chili oil. I really wanted to try and imitate it. I told L-T about it and she asked her mommy for her Chinese beef noodle soup with tomatoes recipe. So we ended up making a variation of Yippee’s/L-T’s mom’s beef noodle soup. It was so good that I’ll even post the recipe.
Put in a large pot:
- cut up chunks of sirloin (we used two packages)
- two heads-worth of garlic, halved (what can I say, we love garlic.. but honestly it’s not overwhelmingly garlicky at the end because much of it dissolves in the soup)
- a spoonful of chili bean sauce
- soy sauce
- sugar
- an onion, chopped
Stir it around a bit and let the meat soak up the salty delicious flavours. (L-T’s mom said we’re supposed to cook the meat a little first before putting it in liquid so that the broth isn’t bloody but this wasn’t really a problem for us.) Wait til most of the red is gone. Then add a little water to cover the meat and simmer it for.. a while. I’d say ~40 minutes. I mean really the longer the better. The meat should be reasonably soft by the time you make the broth (but it will of course get more cooking time in the broth). Ours looked like this:
Then you add:
- a container of beef stock
- some water, two cups or more depending on how thick you want the broth to be/how big your pot is
- more soy sauce and sugar if you want, you should taste it to see
Bring that to a boil. Don’t forget to make the noodles! We made flat udon noodles that L-T bought from the Chinese store on Mill Road. Any delicious sort of rice noodle will work. Once it’s boiling again you add:
- four medium tomatoes, cut into wedges, or however many you want.. I’m a fan of some tomato flavour so I didn’t think this was too many
Wait til the tomatoes fall apart and get sort of stew-y looking, and at the very last moment add:
- pak choi.. we used four bulbs (or whatever they’re called) and chopped off the bottoms so that there were individual leaves in the soup
Make sure the pak choi is immersed in the soup and let it cook for a few minutes. When the soup is done it looks like this:
Serve it over the rice noodles and make sure to dig for the beef at the bottom of the pot!
Make sure everyone has a big enough portion so they aren’t tempted to eat the shoes off their feet D:
