Slow-cooked beef cheek and short rib noodles in a rich beef soup with beef butter (Taipei style)
The main event – rich beef noodles, based on the traditional version you’ll find in Taiwan. With this dish, you’re not expected to finish drinking the broth as it’s so highly seasoned, adding richness and oil to the noodles (but you can). When I eat this dish in Taiwan, I always garnish it lavishly with fermented greens and coriander (cilantro). It’s what makes the dish in my eyes.
It takes a while to prepare this dish as the stock (broth) is cooked slowly with 40-day aged beef bones and a selection of spices. Usually, these beef noodles are served with slices of beef shin that have cartilage and veins running through them. Controversially, I’ve never been a fan, so at BAO we use cheek and short rib instead. We cook the meat slow and then keep it warm in beef butter so it stays meltingly soft.
This recipe makes more beef soup than you need for the recipe. While I recommend you drink it fresh, it will keep in the refrigerator for a few days. You can reheat it and drink it whenever you need an energy boost, or if you want to make another portion of noodles. You will need to make the master stock one night in advance.
BAO by Erchen Chang, Shing Tat Chung and Wai Ting Chung is published by Phaidon, £29.95
Ingredients
Serves 4
For the beef cheek and short ribs
For the rich beef soup
To serve
Method - Beef cheek and short ribs
Step 1
Combine all the ingredients except the meat and spiced beef butter in a large non-reactive bowl to form the marinade. Add the meat and coat with the marinade, then cover and leave to marinate in the refrigerator overnight, or for 8 hours.
Step 2
Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2. Transfer the meat to a roasting pan, pour in about 2 cm (¾ inch) water (it should come about halfway up the meat), cover with aluminium foil and braise in the oven for about 3 hours until tender. Leave the meat to cool. Melt half the spiced beef butter in a saucepan, then slice the beef into 1-cm (½-inch) thick slices. Place the sliced beef in the beef butter, cover with foil, and put in the oven at 60°C/140°F, to keep warm until ready to serve.
Method - Rich beef soup
Step 3
Make the soup while the beef cheek and short ribs are braising. Put the star anise, cinnamon stick, Sichuan peppercorns and fennel seeds onto a piece of muslin (cheesecloth) or into a spice bag and tie shut.
Step 4
Heat the teaspoon of spiced beef butter and the oil in a large wok or a deep frying pan over a medium heat. Add the beef trimmings and pan-fry until golden brown, then remove and set aside. Add the onion, carrot, shallots, spring onions (scallions), ginger, chilli, garlic and tomato to the pan and pan-fry over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and add the doubanjiang. Cook for 5 minutes until it smells very fragrant (but do not allow it to burn), then add the soy sauce and the rock sugar and cook for another minute.
Step 5
Pour in the beef master stock and return the browned beef trimmings. Put the spice bag into the braising liquid, increase the heat to medium and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and cover (if your pan does not have a lid, place a piece of baking (parchment) paper directly on the braising liquid and then cover the pan with aluminium foil). Simmer for 1 hour.
Step 6
Pour in the beef master stock and return the browned beef trimmings. Put the spice bag into the braising liquid, increase the heat to medium and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and cover (if your pan does not have a lid, place a piece of baking (parchment) paper directly on the braising liquid and then cover the pan with aluminium foil). Simmer for 1 hour.
Step 7
Taste the soup. It should be rich and deep in flavour. If it’s not, continue cooking for up to another 1 hour. Leave the soup to cool slightly, then strain into a heatproof bowl, discarding all the solids. Leave the soup to cool, then skim the fat from the top with a spoon.
To assemble
Step 8
Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2 and place 4 heatproof bowls in the oven to warm.
Step 9
Pour 1 litre of the soup into a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil over a medium heat. Keep warm until needed.
Step 10
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. While the water is coming to the boil, add ¼ teaspoon of grated garlic to each warmed bowl.
Step 11
Cook the noodles in two batches. Place half of the noodles in the boiling salted water and give them a stir with chopsticks to separate the strands. Once the water comes to the boil again, cook for 1 minute and 10 seconds. (If the noodles aren’t freshly prepared, it may require longer cooking time. Have a test bite before straining.) Drain and immediately divide between 2 of the prepared warmed bowls by picking up half of the noodles with a pair of chopsticks. Gently lay the ends of the strands into the bowl and fold them over so the noodles are all uniformly sitting snug next to each other. Repeat for the second batch of noodles.
Step 12
Pour the soup over the noodles and top each bowl with a slice of beef cheek, a slice of beef rib and 1 teaspoon of the spiced beef butter. Finish with the coriander (cilantro) and 1 tablespoon of fermented mustard greens. Slurp away.
