Made braised beef noodle soup! For a Terry/Rhonda & Hector/Katy dinner party before Thanksgiving.
To make beef shank:
Used center cut beef shank. Rinse off blood, and bring to boil in cold water – skimm off foam. I just poured away all the water and rinsed off the meat. This is to clarify the soup.
To make soup, cover the par boiled beef in water. Add 1 cu soy sauce, 4 tblsp brown sugar, 1 tblsp Five Spice powder, 6 cloves garlic, sliced, 8 big slices of ginger, 1 bunch of green onions, 5 star anise pods, 1/4 cup shaoxing cooking wine, 4 bay leaves. Let simmer for 2 hours. After simmer for two hours, meat should be almost done. Salt to taste, and let stand for 1 hour.
This makes the beef and beefy stock.
To round out the soup for the noodles, I clarified some chicken stock by using better than bullion at the recommended rate, and then skimmed it off. Then in the tea ball, I put lots of ginger, and a few cloves of garlic. Boiled it for a few minutes with white pepper. This makes a very gingery broth.
To make the noodles, soak the dry canton noodles for 2 minutes, and then boil for 3 in mildly salt water — you want to add some flavor, but not too much otherwise it will overpower the soup. I also used the same water beforehand to parboil the baby bok choi. I just did it until it was barely wilted — you don’t want to overcook it too much.
To serve, each person gets two noodle clumps, mix equal parts beef broth with ginger chicken broth, serve with a chunk of meat, bok choi, and garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro.
I like this — everything turned out well. Obviously could use some refinement. However, it does take a bit of work to make all this, and again, it celebrates freshness. I would have liked to add daikon, but I forgot it.
Based mostly on these recipes:
Wonton Noodle Soup with Five Spice Beef Shank (Mom)
Ming Tsai
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/wonton-noodle-soup-with-five-spice-beef-shank-mom-recipe-1938967
Ingredients
Five Spice Beef Shank:
Directions
Heat the stock in a stock pot with the ginger and reduce by 20 percent. Add the bok choy, white pepper, and soy sauce. Cook for 3 minutes until bok choy is soft. Check for seasoning. Place the hot noodles in 4 large bowls and top with stock and bok choy. Place sliced beef on top. Garnish with scallions, cilantro, and drizzle with sesame oil.
Five Spice Beef Shank:
Prepare a large non-stick stock-pot coated with oil over high heat. Add the crushed pepper, ginger, and garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Place the beef in the stock-pot and cook, covered about 4 minutes on each side. Add the soy sauce, red wine, five spice powder, salt, star anise, cinnamon, and rock candy and bring the mixture to a boil for about 5 minutes.
Reduce the heat and let simmer for 2 1/2 hours turning the shank every 20 minutes. Remove the shank from the pot and let cool before slicing and adding to the Wonton Noodle Soup.
- 2 small pieces Chinese (cassia) cinnamon, 5 grams
- 2 black cardamom pods (草果), cao-guo, 5 grams
- ½ tablespoon fennel seeds
- 4 star anise pods
- 10 cloves
- 1 dried tangerine peel
- 6 bay leaves
- ½ tablespoon whole white peppercorns
- 4 slices licorice root (甘草), gan-cao, 7 grams
- 2 pieces sand ginger (山奈／沙姜), shan-nai / sha-jiang, 6 grams
- 10 pieces dried amomum white cardamom (白寇), bai-kou, 3 grams
- 3 pounds of beef chuck, cut into large chunks
- 16 cups water
- 5 slices ginger
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 15 grams of rock sugar
- 5 scallions (with the white and green parts separated)
- 1 whole head of garlic (cloves peeled but kept whole)
- 1 pound daikon, cut into ¼-inch thick slices, with each slice quartered
- ¼ cup Shaoxing wine
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- ¼ cup light soy sauce
- Salt, to taste
- Noodle of your choice
- Leafy greens of your choice (spinach, romaine lettuce, choy sum, and bok choy are all good)
- Handful of chopped cilantro (optional)
- 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!
- 100g braised beef shank
- 2 trees of Bok Choy
- 2 serving noodles (either fresh or dried, I use fresh udon this time)
- 2 green onion, finely chopped
- 1 small bunch of coriander, finely chopped
- 500g oxtail+ 250g back bones+ 250g chicken bones
- salt to taste
- 1 green onion
- 1 thumb ginger
- 2 star anise
- 1 small piece of Chinese cinnamon
- 2 bay leaves
- ¼ teaspoon Sichuan peppercorn (must)
- 4 cloves
- 2L (high pressure cooker) to 2.5L (regular soup pot) water
- Remove the blood waters: add all the bones and meat in a large pot, pour in enough water to cover, add green onion and 4 slices of ginger and then bring to a boiling. Transfer out and clean.
- Soak all the spices with around ½ cup boiling hot water for 10 minutes and then wrap all of them with a glaze bag and seal with cotton lines.
- Add all the bones and beef shank, scallion whites and spiced wrapped in the glaze bag. Pour around 2L to 2.5 L water (separately for high pressure cooker and cast iron soup pot). Bring to boil and simmer for around 1.5 to 2 hours.To begin assembling a wonderful beef noodle soup, get yourself a pot of beet stock.
- Cut half of braised beef shank into thin slices and half of it to diced. Chop pickled mustard green and fry with oil until aroma.
- In each serving bowl, mix 1 cup of beef stock with ½ cup of the master stock (??). Cook the noodles according to instructions and then blanch the Bok Choy and transfer them to the bowls. Top with fried mustard greens, green onion and coriander. Serve hot!
by Ming Tsai (and his Mom), The Food Network
(Serves 4)2 quarts chicken stock
2 large slices ginger
4 heads baby bok choy, washed and cut into 1/4 inch slices
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon naturally brewed soy sauce
salt
1 pound fresh wonton noodles, blanched in salted water right before serving
Five Spice Beef Shank, recipe follows 1/2 cup sliced scallions
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 teaspoons sesame oil
Heat the stock in a stock pot with the ginger and reduce by 20 percent. Add the bok choy, white pepper, and soy sauce. Cook for 3 minutes until bok choy is soft. Check for seasoning. Place the hot noodles in 4 large bowls and top with stock and bok choy. Place sliced beef on top. Garnish with scallions, cilantro, and drizzle with sesame oil.
Five Spice Beef Shank:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon crushed peppers
8 thin slices fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic
1 1/2 pounds beef shank
1 cup soy sauce
4 cups red wine
1 tablespoon five spice powder
1 tablespoon salt
3 pieces star anise
dash cinnamon powder
1 large piece rock candy (1-inch cube)
Prepare a large non-stick stock-pot coated with oil over high heat. Add the crushed pepper, ginger, and garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Place the beef in the stock-pot and cook, covered about 4 minutes on each side. Add the soy sauce, red wine, five spice powder, salt, star anise, cinnamon, and rock candy and bring the mixture to a boil for about 5 minutes.
Reduce the heat and let simmer for 2 1/2 hours turning the shank every 20 minutes. Remove the shank from the pot and let cool before slicing and adding to the Wonton Noodle Soup.
