Beef Noodle Soup

Beef noodle soup with beef shank and bok choy - Serving size: 4 people

A. Ingredients:

1. For broth:

• 1 whole white onion (sliced)

• 1 tomato

• 1/2 apple

• 1 bulk of garlic

• 2-3 shallots

• 6-8 slices of ginger

• 3-4 stalks of scallion/spring onion

• Tomato paste: 2 tsps

• Soy bean paste: 2-3 tsps

• Rice wine: 100ml (preferably Shaoxing, but any cooking rice wine works)

• Light soy sauce: 3 tsps

• Rock sugar: 5 pcs

• Sichuan peppercorn: 1 tsp

• Fennel seeds: 1 tsp

• Cinnamon: 1 stick

• Cloves: 5 pcs

• Star anise: 1 p

• 1 Spice bag is strongly recommended.

2. For toppings:

• Noodles: Pretty much any kind of wheat noodle works. My preference is the thin wide wheat noodle for flavor absorption.

• 800g beef shank

• 3 bok choy

• Garnishes: spring onion, cilantro.

B. Preparation:

1. Blanch the beef shank with 1.5L boiling water and half of the ginger. Remove any scums. After ~5 minutes, take the beef aside and strain the broth.

2. In a pot, put some cooking oil and set the heat to medium-high. Sautee onion, gingers, garlic, scallions until they start turning brown.

3. Quickly add tomato paste, soy bean paste, soy sauce, rice wine, and rock sugar. Lower the heat if needed as the paste can burn fast if unnoticed. When the sauce is mixed, add the beef shank and stir fry well for 5 minutes.

4. Add the beef broth and bring the heat to high. Add tomato and apple. Put every spices into the spice bag and add to the pot. When boiled, lower the heat to medium and simmer for 1.5 hours.

5. On the side, cook noodle and bok choy.

6. After 1.5 hours, take out everything from the broth, keep it clean. Pick the beef pieces and set aside. Season the broth again with light soy sauce to your taste.

7. In a bowl, add a few drop of sesame oil (this is optional). Add noodle, bok choy, beef and garnish, then add broth. Enjoy~