Introduction to Taiwanese Beef Noodles
Taiwanese Beef Noodles is the favourite food that Taiwanese always want to have. In Taipei, it’s not hard to see a long queue outside a famous noodle restaurant. It took almost an hour for the local to get just one bowl of Taiwanese Beef Noodles. What drives people so addicted to this bowl of noodles and can’t leave without having it?
Combination of Tenderness, Flavourness and Spiciness
Instead of having beef brisket like what we did in making Chu Hou Braised Beef Brisket (柱侯牛腩), we have beef shank meat in this dish. There are two distinct advantages of having beef shank in Taiwanese Beef Noodles is that:
- The beef shank meat have less fat than beef brisket, which make the soup less oily and healthier to drink.
- The beef shank meat is full of tendons. While stewing the beef shank, all tendons inside become softened and form a jelly-like texture. The tender beef tendons then absorb all flavours come from the soup… All these changes during stewing contribute to the rich flavours with great texture of the beef!
Besides of the umami comes from the beef and sweetness from the tomato paste, Taiwanese also like to add pickled mustard green to increase the sourness and freshness to the soup noodles.
Behind of all these flavours, there is “a little bit” spiciness come from chili bean sauce which makes the noodle so zesty and irresistible!
Let’s follow the recipe below and learn how to bring these flavours on the table!
Taiwanese Beef Noodle (紅燒牛肉麵)
Ingredients
Main Ingredients
- 800-1000 g Beef Shank Meat
- 2 pieces Taiwanese Noodles
- 1 can Tomato Paste
- 1 bunch Spring Onion (Cut into 3cm length)
- 5 gloves Garlic
- ½ piece Onion (Sliced)
- 5 slices Ginger
- 5 g Cinnamon Stick
- 3 g Star Anise
- 3 g Si Chuan Pepper
- 2 Litre Boiling Water
Seasonings
- 5 tbsp Chili Bean Sauce
- 1 tbsp Chinese Rice Wine
- 60 g Rock Sugar
- 2 tsp Soy Sauce
Taiwanese pickled mustard green
- 100 g Taiwanese pickled mustard green (Minced)
- 2 gloves Garlic (Minced)
Instructions
- Prepare all ingredients.
- Boil the whole piece of beef shank meat in the boiling water for 15-20mins until half done. Rinse the beef shank by cold water.
- Cut the beef shank in few large pieces.
- Prepare a filter bag with star anise, cinnamon and Si Chuan pepper in it.Tips: Or you can buy a pat of "Spice bag" (滷包) to replace the preparation of these spices.
- Pat the garlic cloves. Fry the garlic cloves, ginger slices, spring onions and sliced onions with 2 tbsp oil add the pot.
- Add the beef shank meat and rock sugar into the pot and stir fry for 2 mins.
- Add chili bean sauce and tomato paste into the pot and continue stir fry for another minute.
- Add boiling water and the filter bag into the pot and boil with medium heat for 15 mins. Then continue boil the soup with low heat for 1 hr.
- Get the large beef shank pieces out and slices them to smaller pieces. Put them back into the pot and stew for another half hour.
- Add soy sauce and Chinese rice wine for the final seasoning. Then add Taiwanese noodles into the soup and boil until the noodles soften.
Taiwanese pickled mustard green (Optional)
- Heat a pan with 2 tbsp oil and stir fry the Taiwanese pickled mustard green on the pan.
- Add the minced garlic into the Taiwanese pickled mustard green and stir fry it. You can add on top of the Taiwanese Beef Noodle.
