Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
April 30, 2011 § 2 Comments
I have been waiting to make this for 40 days.
This recipe is a shout-out to my most darling friend of Taiwanese-descent, Ellen. Superspy.
Notes:
1. Only put two star anise, because even if you think it’s not enough, those little suckers are STRONG. And delicious. But just put two, you don’t want to overpower your soup.
2. I didn’t make my own noodles, but one day I will. Until then, kalgooksoo noodles (jja jang myun noodles) are totally sufficient.
3. I couldn’t find Chili Bean sauce in the grocery store, so I used Chili Black Bean Sauce. I hope I didn’t make a cardinal error that is an affront to this noodle’s tradition, but it tasted really good!
4. If you can’t find rock sugar, I think it would be fine. It just looks pretty cool.
5. Ideally you want to boil until the meat has fallen off the bone and your marrow-bones look bare, see below. (That means all the FLAVOR is in your broth! Mmmmm)
Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
Serves 4
Adapted from TinyUrbanKitchen
3 lbs Beef Shank
2 T vegetable oil
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch chunk of ginger, chopped
2 star anise
2 scallion stalks, chopped
2 1/2 T Chili black bean sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 carrots, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1/4 cup rice wine
1/4 cup rock sugar
8 baby bok-choy, split in half and washed well
2 bunches of fresh hand-pulled noodles
hot sauce
Directions
Soak beef shank pieces in hot water for about 5 minutes. Drain dirty water, rinse beef shanks, and set aside. Over medium high heat saute garlic, ginger, scallions, and star anise in vegetable oil until fragrant. Add beef shank and chili bean sauce and saute for a few minutes, until the beef is slightly browned. Add soy sauce and cook for 2 minutes. Add carrots, tomatoes, rice wine, and rock sugar. Add water until everything is just covered. Bring to medium high heat and then reduce to a simmer and cover for 2-4 hours, or until the beef is fall-apart tender. You may need to add water because of evaporation, so please keep a close eye on it! (Optional* Add hot sauce to taste.) Remove meat and let it cool, and then slice carefully against the grain when it is cool enough to handle. Reserve.
In a separate pot, boil water. Add bok-choy and boil for 3 minutes, and then immediately submerge in cold water. Drain, and put aside.
In another large pot, boil water for the noodles. Boil the noodles according to directions on the package, mine were no longer than four minutes.
In your serving bowl, add the drained noodles. Add bok-choy on top, and then a few slices of meat (around 5-6 per bowl is good). Enjoy!
my golden hour 
mm! i can’t believe you made this! sometimes my fam would do the braise in a pressure cooker so it was faster… and sometimes we’d add in eggs as well. this is definitely 1 thing i miss about mom’s cooking and/or taiwan. ps you know how in korea you can get jja jjung myun delivered and it comes with all the stuff? they do that with beef noodle soup in taiwan!
i love noodle soup. especially beef noodle soup. wanna come over and make this for me? I’ll trade you my daughter for noodle soup. (ok, maybe just playtime with her for noodle sou 😉