Spicy Beef Noodle Soup (Niu Rou Mian)

By Wendy Tien, Upstart Kitchen

I can say with confidence that no city in the world outshines Taipei in the street food department. The noodle soup stands are ubiquitous and feature vats of noodles, and steaming broths, bowls of shredded or slow-cooked meats, bins of raw vegetables and eggs. Recently, the Taipei Main Station – the main railway terminal – opened an amazing food court featuring a wide array of noodle soups, curries, and other international meals. Their braised beef noodle soup – niu rou mian – is delicious.  Some specialists believe the best Niu Rou Mian features separately cooked meat and broth. I agree,  but if you want to eat this on a weeknight, you can prepare a really good broth using just the meat and leaving out the bones (and in a culinary sense, broth differs from stock in that it does not require bones).

2 lbs beef brisket, cut into 1 1/4″ cubes – tendon and shank are great also
2 lbs beef bones, preferably knuckle and oxtail
About 10 cups filtered water
6 inch piece ginger, sliced 1/2″ thick lengthwise (slightly on the diagonal)
6 scallions, 4″ segments
1 onion, halved across the equator
6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 tablespoon bean paste
1 tablespoon hot bean paste
1/4 cup soy sauce + 2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons shaoxing wine
3 whole star anise

*****
12 ounces wheat noodles (la mian)
1 lb green vegetable, like broccoli raab or chinese broccoli (gai lan)
*****
Tiny red chiles, sliced into thin rings
Hot bean paste
Pickled mustard greens, chopped into fine dice – available in cans in Asian groceries
Scallions, sliced into thin rings
Toasted/black sesame oil

For the broth:
Place a large deep pot over medium heat and add a small quantity of vegetable/canola oil. Add the onion. Do not stir but allow the onion to blacken. Remove from the pot. Add the garlic, ginger, scallions, and saute until aromatic. Return the onion to the pot, reduce the heat to low, and add the beef bones. Add 7 cups of water and bring to a simmer, skimming all the foam that rises to the top. Simmer for 3-4 hours. Strain through a chinois/fine strainer.

Meanwhile, in a separate heavy pot with a lid, combine the bean pastes, star anise, shaoxing wine, and soy with the remaining 3 cups of water. Add the beef and bring to a simmer. Skim the foam that rises to the top. Simmer until the beef is tender, about 2-3 hours depending on the type of beef and its fat/collagen content.

Combine the beef with its braising liquid and the strained beef stock. Bring back to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes. Taste for seasoning and adjust with soy sauce. You can prepare this in advance and hold it for service (or freeze it and bring back to a simmer for about 10 minutes to heat the meat thoroughly before service).

Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil, reduce the heat, and cook the greens until just crisp-tender. Remove from the pot, return the water to the boil, and cook the noodles. Drain the noodles and divide into a number of bowls (4-6 depending on hunger level). Add greens, beef, and broth. Garnish with scallions, red chile, bean paste, sesame oil, and pickled mustard greens.

Pad Thai

By Naam Pruitt, Author, Lemongrass & Limes: Thai Flavors with Naam Pruitt

1 cup sliced pork, marinated in 1 teaspoon of light soy sauce
1 cup shrimp, shelled and deveined
¼ cup cubed tofu (extra firm preferred), optional
3 eggs
2 large shallots, chopped
¼ cup sweetened, dried radish (chopped)
½ 14 ounce package medium sized rice noodles
3 cups bean sprouts, washed
½ cup garlic chives, sliced 2-inches long
¼ cup fish sauce
¼ cup palm sugar or granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
¼ cup canola oil

Condiments
lime slices
granulated Sugar
dried chili flakes
roasted peanuts, chopped
fish sauce
extra bean sprouts

1. Soak rice noodles in warm water for 20 minutes.  Drain and set aside.

2. Heat wok over medium high heat and add oil. Add shallots and fry until golden. Add turnips, pork, and tofu and stir-fry until cooked. Add noodles, sugar, and fish sauce; cook until noodles are soft. Push noodles to the side of wok and add shrimp; cook until lightly pink.  Push shrimp to the side by the noodles and then add eggs; scramble until eggs are cooked. Stir in bean sprouts and chives and turn off heat.

For authentic Thai style, prepare five separate bowls to serve lime slices, chili flakes, fish sauce, sugar, and peanuts. Top each serving of noodles with each condiment in the same ratio. For example, add one teaspoon of fish sauce for each teaspoon of sugar. The chili flakes are optional but add a great spiciness to the dish. Squeeze the lime over the noodles and discard the rind. Once you have added all the desired condiments mix together well and enjoy! Since this is a noodle dish, Thai people eat this with chopsticks.

Penang Fried Kuey Teow

by Linda Tay Esposito Flavor Explosions, San Francisco
Serves 10

6 tablespoons dark soy sauce
9 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
9 tablespoons water
4 lb fresh flat rice noodles
10 cloves of garlic, minced to make about 10 teaspoons of minced garlic
20 oz shelled uncooked medium-sized shrimps
12 oz Chinese chives
12 oz / 4 cups bean sprouts
4 Chinese sausage, thinly sliced
20 tablespoons/ 1 ¼ cup canola oil, in a squeeze bottle
Sri Racha chili sauce (optional)
10 eggs

1. Mix soy sauces and water together. Transfer to a squeeze bottle. Set aside.
2. Place the remaining ingredients mise-en-place, and roughly divide each ingredient into 10 portions

Cooking the dish – 1 serving at a time:

3. Heat a cast iron pan or a wok on high heat
4. Add 1 tablespoon oil, add 1 portion (1/10th of the ingredient) of Chinese sausage and sauté 1 minute till fragrant. Push to the side of the wok.
5. Add ½ teaspoon of garlic and a portion of shrimp and saute until shrimp turns pink. Push to the side of the wok.
6. Add 1/2 tablespoon of oil and another ½ teaspoon of garlic and for spicier option, add ½ teaspoon Sri Racha. Sauté 30 seconds, add 1 portion of noodles. Drizzle 2 tablespoons soy sauce mix over the noodles, toss on high heat till noodles are well coated. Push to the side of the wok.
7. Make a well in the middle, add 1/2 tablespoon of oil. Break in an egg, drizzle in a teaspoon of soy sauce mix, let it cook like a sunny side up, until eggs are whit but still slightly runny, then scramble the eggs into the noodle mixture.
8. Add 1 portion each of bean spouts and chives. Toss to mix.
9. Serve immediately.

Repeat for each serving.

Chicken Rice with Fresh Dipping Sauces

By Carol Selva Rajah, Malaysian Cooking: A Master Cook Reveals Her Best Recipes

serves: 4–6
preparation time: 45 mins
cooking time: 30 mins

1 fresh chicken (1 kg/2 lbs), with skin on
400 g (2 cups) uncooked long-grain rice, washed and drained well
2 star anise pods
2.5 cm (1 in) fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 teaspoons sesame oil
6 cups (1.5 litres) Chicken Stock
3 green onions (scallions)
2 teaspoons preserved Chinese cabbage (tang chye), plus 1 more tablespoon for the soup
Salt and ground white pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon sesame oil, to rub into the chicken
Thick dark soy sauce

Garlic Ginger Mix
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2.5 cm (1 in) fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

Garlic Chilli Sauce
1/4 cup (60 ml) bottled garlic chilli sauce
1 tablespoon vinegar

Accompaniments
Sliced cucumber
Sliced tomatoes (optional)
Sliced red finger-length chillies
Green onion (scallion) strips

Lift the lid while cooking and breathe in deeply the tempting aroma, especially if you are using jasmine rice and a full-bodied chicken stock. The brothy chicken aroma is layered into the dish with star anise, ginger and nutty sesame oil when the chicken is served, making it an enticing and satisfying dish for your family or guests.

Prepare the Chicken Stock. Clean the chicken well, removing the fat from under the skin and back. Dice the chicken fat and melt it in a skillet over high heat. Pour the chicken fat over the washed rice and mix well.

Grind the star anise, ginger and garlic in a food processor or a mortar until fine. Rub the paste over the entire body of the chicken and inside the body cavity.

Heat the sesame oil in a wok and stir-fry the fat-coated rice over medium heat until fragrant, 3–5 minutes. Set aside.

Bring the Chicken Stock to a boil in a pot. Add the chicken, green onions, preserved Chinese cabbage, salt and pepper. Return to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer uncovered, skimming off the foam from the stock, until the chicken is just cooked, 3–4 minutes. Remove from the heat. Remove the chicken from the stock and strain the stock, discarding the solids. Rub the sesame oil over the chicken and set aside. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces just before serving.

To cook the rice, place the stir-fried rice, 21/2 cups (625 ml) of the reserved stock and salt to taste in the rice cooker. The stock should be 2.5–4 cm (1–11/2 in) above the rice level. Switch on the rice cooker and allow to cook. Alternatively, boil in a saucepan for 1–2 minutes, then cover the pan and simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes until all the water has been absorbed and the rice is cooked. Turn off the heat and allow the rice to sit for 5–10 minutes before removing the lid. If desired, add a little sesame oil to the cooked rice, then fluff with a fork to separate the grains before serving.

Prepare the Garlic Ginger Mix by grinding the garlic and ginger to a paste in a mortar. Prepare the Garlic Chilli Sauce by mixing the ingredients together.

To prepare the soup, boil the remaining stock and preserved Chinese cabbage for about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and ladle into individual serving bowls.

To serve, place the chicken rice on serving plates. Arrange the chicken pieces and Accompaniments on top. Serve immediately with the soup, Garlic Ginger Mix, Garlic Chilli Sauce, green onions and dark soy sauce on the side.

Reprinted with the express permission of Tuttle Publishing, a member of the Periplus Publishing Group.

Seafood Noodle Soup

By Martin Yan, Author,Martin Yan’s China

Serves 1

8 ounces fresh noodles
2 cups chicken broth
8 small raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/2 fresh red chili, thinly sliced
4 fresh shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced

Seasonings
1 tablespoon Shao Hsing wine
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon oyster-flavored sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper

1. In a pot of boiling water, cook noodles according to package directions. Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain again. Place noodles in a serving bowl and set aside. Bring chicken broth to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add shrimp, chili, and shiitake mushrooms; cook until heated through. Add seasonings, cook for 1minute more. Ladle soup over noodles and serve.

Copyrights Yan Can Cook, Inc., 2006

Laksa Johor

by Linda Tay Esposito Flavor Explosions, San Francisco
Serves 6

Meat:
½ lb salted cod
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 lb cod

Spice Paste:
10 dried Japanese chilies or 5 fresh red jalapeno
10 shallots
1 inch of ginger
1 inch of galangal
1 inch fresh tumeric
1 tablespoon roasted belachan
5 candlenuts
½ teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoon dried shrimp, soaked
3 tablespoon toasted desiccated coconut

Broth:
¼ cup of canola oil for frying
3 cups coconut milk
3 pieces of lemongrass, bruised
5 stalks laksa leaves
3-4 cups fish or chicken broth
1 Tablespoon kosher salt

Toppings:
1 cup of shredded English cucumber
1 red jalapeno
½ red onion
1 cup of fresh pineapples
2 eggs
1 cup of mint leaves, whole
2 tablespoons laksa leaves, finely minced
1 Tablespoon ginger flower, finely minced
8 oz spaghetti, some salt and olive oil
1 lime, quartered

Preparing the salted cod:
1. Soak the salt cod for a couple of hours. Change the water if needed.
2. Remove the bones and mince the fish fine. Soak the dried shrimp for at least an hour.

Preparing the fish:
3. Salt the fish. Steam the fish until opaque and cooked through, about 10 minutes.
4. When cooled, remove bones and skin. Coarsely flake the fish with a fork.

Preparing the spice paste:
5. Grind together spice paste ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Set aside.
6. Grind dried shrimp, salt cod, and toasted desiccated coconut into fine flakes.

Preparing the laksa soup base:
7. Heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat until just hot. Stir in spice paste. Stir constantly, until the red oil separates from the spice paste about 8 to 10 minutes. Add fish mince.
8. Lower the heat, slowly add coconut milk, lemon grass, tamarind slices, laksa leaves, chicken broth and bring to a slow simmer, stirring constantly. Simmer for at 20-30 minutes. Salt to taste. Remove tamarind, lemongrass and laksa leaves. Add flaked fish.

Preparing the vegetables:
9. Finely julienne cucumber and jalapeno. Slice the onion. Cut pineapples into small wedges. Chiffonade the laksa leaves and ginger flower.
10. Beat eggs with a pinch of salt. Make thin omelets. Slice them into ¼ inch strips.

Preparing the noodles
11. Bring a pot of water to boil. Boil spaghetti till el dente. Drain.

Assembly
12. Place a serving of noodles, vegetables, herb, eggs in bowls and ladle laksa broth over.
13. Serve with quartered limes and sambal.

Noodle Stir Fry with Shrimp Recipe

recipe from Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen

6 ounces dried noodles (I used thin spaghetti noodles)
7 ounces raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt, divided (or 3/4 tsp table salt)
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1/4 cup snow peas, thinly sliced on diagonal
1/4 cup matchstick cut carrots
1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1. Bring a stockpot of water to boil. Add 1 tsp of salt to water and cook the noodles, according to package directions. Drain. While pasta is cooking, place shrimp in a small bowl and add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the cornstarch. Mix well and let sit for 8 minutes. Rinse the shrimp well, washing off the salt and cornstarch. Pat very dry with paper towels. This step helps clean and make the shrimp more succulent.

2. In a wok or large saute pan, heat cooking oil on high until a bead of water sizzles and evaporates upon contact. Add the shrimp and fry until halfway cooked through, about 1 minute each side (you’ll add the shrimp back in at later step) Dish out the shrimp to a plate, keeping as much oil in wok as possible (you should have about 1 teaspoon of oil left and you may add an just a bit of oil into the pan if needed.)

3. In the same pan, turn heat down to medium and add the garlic. Fry until fragrant, about 15 seconds then add the snow peas and carrots. Fry for 1 minute, until the carrots and snow peas are just slightly cooked but still retain a nice crunch. Add the soy sauce and rice wine. Turn heat to high and when bubbling, add the drained  noodles and the partially cooked shrimp. Toss well to combine. Let cook for 2 minutes, until shrimp is cooked all the way through.

4. Toss with sesame oil and sesame seeds.

Yields 2 auspicious servings

Chicken Curry Laksa

By Penny Cai, Singaporean Asian Food Blogger from Melbourne, Australia
of Jeroxie (Addictive & Consuming)

Adapted from the cookbook, Authentic Recipes from Singapore by David Wong and Djoko Wibisono.

Serves 8

Spice Paste
2tsp of curry powder
1tbsp of red chilli powder
1tbsp of coriander powder
4tbsp of dried shrimps (soak in water to soften it)
6 candlenuts or macadamia nuts (roughly chopped
4cm of fresh tumeric
8 hot chillies (de-seed or reduce number of chillies according to taste)
l7cm of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
8 large shallots, roughly chopped
5 -8 cloves of garlic (depending how much you love garlic)
2 tbsp of dried shrimp paste or belacan
2tsp of salt
1 – 2 tbsp of sugar (optional) – Just taste and add more if you prefer a sweeter sauce
3 stalks of lemongrass, a third from the bottom. Bruise and chop roughly

Laksa Soup
Peanut oil
6 cups of thin coconut milk or 2 cups of coconut cream mixed with 1L of water
4 cups of chicken stock ( I added some curry leaves when making the chicken stock)
Chicken drumsticks or you can choose to use shredded chicken
Tofu puffs
Egg noodles or rice vermicelli (not too fussy about what kind of noodles you use. And I used 100g of noodles for each portion
Boiled chicken or quail eggs
String beans or bean sprouts (or your choice of vegetable)
Coriander leaves, finely shopped
Crispy fried shallots (optional)

Blend all the laksa paste ingredients except for salt and sugar. Add some peanut oil if necessary to keep the blades turning. Or you may choose to use the mortar and pestle. Taste and season the paste with salt and sugar after. Set aside

Heat the oil in a wok or pot over low heat and stir-fry the spice paste for 5 mins or until fragrant. Add the coconut milk and chicken stock. Bring to oil and stir constantly.

Reduce the heat and add the pre-cooked chicken, add the tofu puffs and string beans. Season accordingly with salt and white pepper. Simmer for about 5-8 mins

Place pre-cooked noodles in a bowl, add the chicken curry soup, add bean sprouts of you are using any here. Garnish with eggs and coriander leaves. (Add the fried shallots here if you have any) Also optional, add some sambal chilli for more kick.

 Note: I will usually make more spice paste and freeze it in ice cube trays for future use. If you are vegetarian, just add more tofu and vegetables. And you can always replace the chicken with seafood like prawns, fishcakes and even crabs. For extra flavour, use prawn stock instead of chicken stock.