Taiwanese Braised Beef Noodle Soup

Name: Taiwanese Braised Beef Noodle Soup
Total time: 10800 s
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2.5 kg boneless beef finger ribs; 1 medium onion; 1 red chili; 5 cloves garlic; 8 slices peeled ginger; 2 stalks green onion; 1 medium tomato; 1 bag seasoning for stewing 滷包 (star anise, clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg); 2 tbsp spicy chilli bean paste; 1 spoon soy sauce; 1 spoon rice wine; Some pepper powder for seasoning; Some cooking oil (vegetable oil or canola oil works fine); Noodles to serve

Lilian Lin @sincerelylilian

Toronto, ON

Being a Taiwanese person abroad, you often miss perhaps one of the most famous dishes in Taiwan--Beef Noodle Soup. While I was living in smaller communities abroad (like London, Ontario and Aachen, Germany), I often had really bad cravings for beef noodles so I searched high and low for an easy but delicious recipe of the popular dish. This recipe comes from a famous Taiwanese chef Meixian Lee (李梅仙). Even though I live in a much bigger city (Toronto) now and have access to lots of Taiwanese restaurants, I rarely find myself needing to go to them for beef noodle soup as this recipe is as good as it gets!
Most of the ingredients here can be bought at your local Chinese grocer and are sometimes available in the international aisle at your regular grocer.

Lilian Lin @sincerelylilian

Saved

Ingredients

3 hours

4 servings

2.5 kgboneless beef finger ribs
1medium onion
1red chili
5 clovesgarlic
8 slicespeeled ginger
2 stalksgreen onion
1medium tomato
1 bagseasoning for stewing 滷包 (star anise, clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg)
2 tbspspicy chilli bean paste
1 spoonsoy sauce
1 spoonrice wine
Some pepper powder for seasoning
Some cooking oil (vegetable oil or canola oil works fine)
Noodles to serve

Saved

Steps

3 hours

1

Cut the beef into cubes of about 5 cm. I have also used different types of beef to make the beef noodles as finger ribs are not always available. I have used stewing beef (too lean and falls apart) and also beef flank (too fatty) before.
2

Slice the onions, chop the chilli and green onions into smaller segments, slice the garlic and ginger, and chop the tomato.
3

Heat up some water to blanch the cubes of beef.
4

Boil just enough water to cover the beef in another pot with half of the green onion and ginger, and bag of seasoning. After boiling, place the cubes of beef into the pot and add the rice wine. Boil for about 3 minutes, take the beef out and set aside. Keep the remaining liquid and its contents.
5

Warm up some oil in a wok and stir fry the onions, chilli, garlic, tomatoes, and the rest of the green onions and ginger. Then add the spicy chilli bean paste and the blanched beef from the previous step. Mix well.
6

Add the remaining liquid and its contents from step 4 to the wok followed by soy sauce and pepper powder, boil, and simmer with lid on low heat for 2.5 hours. You can also use a pressure cooker to shorten the cooking time.
7

Serve with cooked noodles.