This is a classic home cooked comfort food perfect for the winter time! I think every family has a variation/way of cooking this dish! The soup comes out super rich and aromatic, and the beef with all the tendons become very tender from the slow cooking. I think this dish is something that my grandma and aunt crave for when it's cold outside! I'm not sure about my mom....she's never been like I want beef noodle soup! In my opinion, there's only 2 local restaurants that make this dish taste like home cooking. I like to make this soup in a big pot, about 10-12 servings(which will be about 2 family meals). This is something you should cook on a day off, or on the weekend as it's very time consuming. Or if you have a slow cooker, I think you can try cooking it in there. Let's get started!!!
1. I bought a beef shank (about 2 pounds) from the grocery store, and asked my butcher to cut it into pieces for me. I don't like the hassle of dealing with meat so I asked the butcher to cut it for me. But if you like to do it yourself go right ahead! My pieces were a little big, so you can cut it into smaller pieces if you like. You can cook the whole shank then cut it... I like to cook it in small pieces because it will cut down on the cooking time. With beef and pork sometimes there is a strong meat smell, so I soaked it in water for about 30 minutes to remove the blood from the meat. If you decide to cook the whole shank you will need to clean it by doing a quick boil in water first.
2. Next step, while we're waiting for the meat to be ready you can gather all your ingredients for the sauce! Below I have 2 kinds of soy bean paste, one is a sweet paste, and the other is just the regular kind. To make the soup taste better you can add tomatoes, and onions. I added 2 tomatoes this time, and didn't add an onion because we didn't have any on hand.
3. Slice your ginger (you can leave the skin on), cut your green onion into about 3 inch pieces, and cube the tomatoes.
4. Add a little oil into your stock pot, heat on medium. Put your ginger in first and saute until it becomes fragrant. Then add in the green onion, cook until the it becomes fragrant as well.
5. Now you are ready to add the soybean paste. I added 1 big spoonful of the sweet soybean paste, and 2 big spoonfuls of the regular soybean paste. (I used the soup spoons from previous entries) Cook this on medium heat because you don't want to burn or separate the oils from the sauce. Avoid high heat at this point!
6. So after the soybean paste has been cooking, and getting fragrant, you can add in your beef. Cook it until the outside has turned color.
7. Add in the tomatoes, and soy sauce (I would say start with a 1/2 cup)!
8. I didn't have anymore rice cooking wine, so I added vodka instead!
9. Let this all cook together for about 5-6 minutes.
10. Now you can add in about 1-1.5 liters of
hot water!
11. Add in about 5-6 Star Anise...I know in the picture I only put in 4, I ended up putting in a few more after I took the picture!
12. At this time, I added a little more soy sauce, and soybean paste. Because, the color of the soup looked a little watered down. You can add in some double black soy sauce to make the soup darker. You want it to be a very dark brown. Taste it to make sure there is enough flavor. If the color of the soup is dark enough, you can add in some salt instead.
13. Now you're going to cover the pot, let it simmer on medium heat for at least 4 hours. Or until the meat becomes tender. While the soup is simmering, you can occasionally add in some more water, as the water will evaporate while cooking.
14. While the meat is cooking I started preparing the pickled mustard to eat with the beef noodle soup! Our family likes the brand of pickled mustard with the lotus on the front. But our grocery store doesn't stock that brand anymore, so this is the kind I bought! It still tastes good, just not the kind I ate growing up!
*Have you tasted pickled mustard before? I can assure you if you like pickles you will LOVE pickled mustard!!! It's sour, crunchy, salty, and after you cook it garlicky!!! I have to admit typing this up is making my mouth water!!! (*____*)
15. After you open up the package you want to rinse it off with some water, as there may be some excess dirt/sand on the vegetable from before they pickled it. I squeezed out the excess water, then started mincing the mustard into very small pieces. The easier way to chop the mustard is to cut off the leaves of the vegetable from the center. Then I cut off the top part/dark greens, and julienne the non leafy part of the mustard. After I julienne the mustard then I went back and minced the mustard into very fine pieces. Then I minced all the leafy parts of the mustard together.
16. After I was done finely mincing my pickled mustard, I soaked it in water again in a colander. To cook the mustard I used garlic and about a pinch of sugar.
17. Add garlic, and 1 tablespoon of oil into a pan
18. Add in the drained mustard.
19. Add in the sugar. Below is how much was left in my spoon after I added the sugar into the mustard. Adding the sugar is just to taste. The sugar is supposed to make the mustard a little less sour. I like my mustard on the sour side, so I only added a little bit of sugar! After it cooks together for about 5 minutes, you can dish it up!
20. The next step is to wash up some veggies. You can use baby napa cabbage, bok choy, or baby bok choy. I cut them into about 1-2 inch pieces.
21. Blanch the bok choy in hot water for 1 minute then, stop the cooking by putting it into some cold water. You don't want to fully cook the veggies, because it will cook a little more when you dish it up in the hot soup. So this way the bok choy will still be crunchy, and not overcooked.
22. Now you can start cooking up your noodles. Below is the kind our family likes. I bought the thin and broad noodles. They're fresh made noodles in the refrigerator section. The noodles tastes just like homemade. Cook until al dente. Remember don't overcook the noodles as they will cook a little more in the hot soup when you dish it up.
23. Finally the last step! I put the noodles in my bowl first, then my veggies, add on top the desired amount of beef, then spoon on some pickled mustard!
You can bring this for lunch too. Just cook the noodles, rinse, and put a little oil on it. Put the veggies and soup in one container, and the noodles with some mustard in another. To heat up pour the noodles in the soup and cook together!!! YAY! I hope you guys enjoy this recipe!!! until next time!
hugs and kisses
<3 lulu
