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The Hirshon Ultimate Taiwanese Spicy Beef Noodle Soup – 牛肉麵

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taiwanese spicy beef noodle soup
Picture used under Creative Commons License from the excellent blog at www.ladyandpups.com

Citizens! This recipe is pretty much the national dish of Taiwan – and who wouldn’t love a spicy beef noodle soup?! There are annual competitions in Taipei for who can make the best Niu Rou Mien – I’d like to think mine would at least place amongst these masters. 🙂

Given that we are now officially in Winter in the Northern Hemisphere, this seemed like a very appropriate recipe to kick off the blog with. It’s authentic to its roots but modified just enough to make it revolutionary and unique (as well as supremely delicious!). It is also a rarely-known dish outside Taiwan and that needs to be changed ASAP.

This recipe is restaurant-quality and fiendishly difficult to make over SEVERAL DAYS! Be advised and gird your culinary loins accordingly for this recipe, Citizens!

It is believed that that the origins of niu rou mien started with Chinese soldiers who fled to the island in 1949. They made a beef soup with the spicy bean paste (that definitely originates from the Sichuan province) and soy sauce, and served it with noodles.

It is sometimes considered a national dish and every year Taipei holds an annual Beef Noodle Festival, where various chefs and restaurants compete for the title of the “best beef noodles”.

Due to influences from the influx of immigrants from mainland China in the early 1900s, the Taiwanese version of beef noodle soup is now one of the most popular dishes in the country.

In Chinese, “牛肉麵” literally means “beef noodles”. Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong restaurants may have a tendency to distinguish between “牛肉麵” “beef noodles” and “牛腩麵” “beef brisket noodles”, with the former containing either beef shank or beef slices and the latter containing only brisket. It is sometimes served with wontons.

In Taiwan, “牛肉麵” typically consists of either brisket or shank only, though many restaurants also have tendon or a more expensive option with both meat and tendon (Chinese: 半筋半肉麵; lit.: ‘half tendon half meat noodle’) and occasionally with tripe; 三寶麵; ‘three-treasure noodle’, usually denotes a bowl containing all three.

If one orders “牛肉湯麵” or “beef soup noodles” in a restaurant in Taiwan, Mainland China or Hong Kong, they might be given a cheaper bowl of noodles in only beef broth but no beef. If one orders a “牛肉湯” or “beef-soup”, they could be given a more expensive bowl of beef broth with chunks of beef in it but without noodles.

As noted in a an article from the Wall Street Journal:

This is a dish with roots in the Chinese mainland that has evolved into a local Taiwanese specialty. Li Ang, one of Taiwan’s most celebrated novelists and a festival judge, says there is no direct equivalent in mainland China.

“After 1949, many (people) from the mainland, especially from Sichuan, arrived in Taiwan and soon became homesick,” she says, referring to the nearly two million people who moved to the island after Mao Zedong’s Communists defeated the Kuomintang.

“To recreate the tastes they left behind they would braise the beef in dark soy sauce, adding noodles and a spicy soup. These are the origins of what will then evolve into our niu rou mian.”

Initially, the dish was associated with the mainland. For centuries Taiwan had observed a taboo about eating beef. A cow “was considered an animal that works for us, and to kill it for its meat was considered like killing a friend for its flesh,” says Ms. Li, adding that the people who introduced the Taiwanese to beef-eating were actually the Japanese, who ruled the island from 1895 until the end of World War II.

My version of this classic recipe adds some Northern Chinese touches – cumin, cardamom, golden rock sugar and minced flowering chive buds, plus using mushroom-flavoured dark soy sauce for even more “low-note” flavour punch.

This isn’t a “short-cut” soup by any means – but this Taiwanese classic will reward your labor with the soul-warming essence of spicy beef goodness. It truly is one of the great, soul-warming soups in the recipe canon and I hope you try it forthwith!

Battle on – The Generalissimo!

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Lo mein - Chinese noodles

The Hirshon Niu Rou Mien – Taiwanese Spicy Beef Noodle Soup

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  • Total Time: 0 hours
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Description

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • Beef Stock Base:
  • 2 large beef shank bones, cut into pieces by butcher
  • 1 chicken carcass
  • 2 pork trotters, cut into pieces
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 small carrot
  • 2 large scallions
  • 5 large slices ginger
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 3 star anise
  • 1/2 cinnamon stick
  • 1 Tbsp. white peppercorns
  • 1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
  • 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
  • ***
  • Beef Stock:
  • 3 lbs beef soup bones, preferably cracked beef hip bones with some meat on them
  • 3 lbs short ribs with bones, sawn across lengthwise to expose the marrow
  • 10 star anise
  • 2 slices licorice root
  • 1 Tbsp. dried goji berries
  • 1/2 Tbsp. green cardamom seeds, outer shell removed
  • 2 black cardamom pods, outer shell removed
  • 1/2 Tbsp. cumin seeds
  • 1/2 Tbsp. coriander seeds
  • 1 Ceylon cinnamon stick
  • 1 tsp. whole fennel seeds
  • 3 fresh bay leaves
  • 18 crushed cloves garlic
  • 3 tablespoons minced flower buds of flowering chives
  • 1 bunch scallions
  • 8 onions, peeled and roughly-chopped
  • 2 Tbsp. Sichuan peppercorns
  • 3 Tbsp. mushroom-flavoured dark soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup light soy sauce
  • 2 Tbsp. pulverized golden rock sugar
  • 4 dried Sichuan chili peppers, torn into pieces, with seeds
  • About 8 Tbsp. chili paste with black beans
  • 1/2 tsp. curry powder
  • 1/4 tsp. five spice powder
  • 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
  • ***
  • Seasoning Paste Mix – combine:
  • 6 Tbsp. tomato paste
  • 6 Tbsp. Sichuan doubanjiang paste
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. Taiwanese Sha Zha Jiang bbq paste
  • ***
  • Seasoning liquid – combine:
  • 1 cup Shaoxing wine
  • 1 cup soy sauce
  • 2 tsp. raw sugar
  • 6 cups beef stock base (reserve the rest for later)
  • 1 tsp. rice vinegar
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. unsweetened peanut butter
  • ***
  • Garnish:
  • finely-minced scallions
  • ***
  • Chinese pickled cabbage (Suan Tsai) garnish, made from:
  • 3 tablespoons chopped pickled mustard greens
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorn / salt blend
  • 3 teaspoons sweetened black vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon minced hot chili peppers
  • ***
  • Sesame oil (Kadoya brand preferred)
  • Fine Chinese wheat noodles (often labelled as “wonton noodles”)
  • Baby Chinese broccoli, baby bok choi, or Shanghai bok choi

Instructions

  1. Making beef stock base: Place the chicken, beef bones in a large pot with a few extra pieces of scallions and gingers (these are not included  in the ingredient list). Fill the pot with cold water and bring to a boil. Make sure every piece of bones and meat is submerged and blanch for 3 minutes (no more pink color or blood). Pour the entire pot out into the kitchen sink with cold water running, and wash each bone and meat under cool running water until all the scum and dirt is removed (discard the scallions and ginger).
  2. Place ALL the ingredients in a large stock pot. Add 12 cups of water to cover everything by 2″, then put the lid on and bring to a boil on high heat, then turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for 2 ~ 2:30 hours.
  3. BREAK every single piece of joint, muscle, bone and connected tissues with the tongs until everything (EVERYTHING!!) falls apart into shreds. Partially cover the pot by half, then turn the heat back on to medium. Keep it at a medium-boil (NOT SIMMER!), and add more water along the way to keep the water level to its original amount until the liquid becomes milky, dense and opaque (not see-through or clear). This will take approx another 2 hours.
  4. Every solid in the broth should be an unrecognizable mush. Once you get to this point, stop adding more water and let the stock reduce down a little (depending on how concentrated you want it). I usually let it reduce down to 80%. Strain the broth through a sieve into another pot. Use a wooden spoon to really press down on the bones and meats to really extract EVERY DROP of broth, then discard the scraps. You’d be surprised how much more liquid you could get out of the scraps. Let the broth cool down then divide it into freezer-proof containers and freeze until needed.
  5. For the soup: Put a wok or large saucepan onto high heat. Add some peanut oil and brown the soup bones. Then transfer the bones to either a large stockpot or a 5 quart slow cooker.
  6. In small batches, put the short ribs into the saucepan. Add enough chili paste to get the meat well coated – after they become well-browned, transfer them to another pot.
  7. Add just barely enough water to cover the short ribs and then simmer until they’re cooked through. Drain the liquid, and add the liquid to the slow-cooker.
  8. Add more chili paste to the cooked ribs, and put them into the fridge overnight
  9. In a fresh pan with some peanut oil, add the garlic, shredded chilis, star anise, and ginger until they just start to brown – then add them to the pot.
  10. Add the two soy sauces, the peppercorns, and the whites of the scallions to the pot, plus cumin and cardamoms. Then add enough water to fill the pot.
  11. Turn the pot onto the lowest possible simmer, and let it cook for at least 12 hours. In the last 3 hours of cooking, add the seasoning paste.
  12. Put the broth through a fine sieve, and then back into the pot. Throw away the sieved ingredients.
  13. Take the refrigerated beef, and add it to the broth. Add water until the pot is about as full as it was when you started the night before.
  14. Let it simmer for another 4 to 6 hours, until the meat is falling apart. After two hours, add seasoning liquid.
  15. While it’s simmering and after adding seasoning liquid, taste it, and add salt or chili-paste as needed; if the vinegar in the chili paste makes it too sour, add a drop of sugar.
  16. Cook the noodles in boiling salt-water.
  17. To serve, bring the soup to a boil. Add in a couple of stems/leaves of the vegetable you picked for each serving, and let it cook until just cooked through.
  18. For each serving, take a large soup bowl. Put a couple of drops of sesame oil into the bottom of the bowl.
  19. Then add a large helping of noodles, beef, vegetables, thinly sliced scallion tops, and the minced flowering chive buds and fill with the broth.
  20. For the pickled vegetables garnish (suan tsai) – make sure to rinse off the pickle brine of the mustard green prior to chopping.
  21. Combine mustard green, minced garlic and chili peppers and stir fry.
  22. Add salt and vinegar and finally drizzle the suan tsai with sesame oil just before removing from heat.
  23. Add suan tsai and minced scallions to each bowl and serve immediately.

Notes

  • Prep Time: 0 hours
  • Cook Time: 0 hours
  • Category: Recipes

Nutrition

  • Calories: 1972.16 kcal
  • Sugar: 10.37 g
  • Sodium: 1879.23 mg
  • Fat: 152.24 g
  • Saturated Fat: 62.15 g
  • Trans Fat: 0.85 g
  • Carbohydrates: 22.5 g
  • Fiber: 3.48 g
  • Protein: 128.61 g
  • Cholesterol: 472.87 mg

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