Noodles Archives - Tiny Urban Kitchen

Quick & Easy Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup (in a pressure cooker!)

Jennifer Che — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 03:28:00 +0000

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

The last six months have been life-changing for me in terms access to Asian groceries.

It all started with my company's move to Fan Pier in Boston.

Up until January, my entire adult working life has been in the city of Cambridge. I lived in Cambridge; I worked in Cambridge. Heck before that, I went to school in Cambridge.

For those of you who know Cambridge, you'll know how frustrating it is to get Asian groceries. As far as I know, we don't have a Chinese grocery store (though there is a wholesale tofu maker, but we'll leave that for another post). We had a few decent Japanese grocery stores in the past (Kotobukiya, Miso Mart), but they've all left now. There's a small Korean market (Lotte) near MIT, and then there's Reliable, another Korean market in Somerville not that close to where I live.

So I would go into Chinatown or Hong Kong Market in Allston on occasional weekends. Sometimes I would resort to the paltry Asian offerings at my neighborhood supermarkets.

My life changed when my company moved to Fan Pier. All of a sudden, I virtually passed by Chinatown on my way home everyday. Better yet, there was a C-Mart right at South Station. It was all-too-convenient to pick up hard-to-get items like Chinese BBQ "Sacha" sauce, my favorite "Old Lady" chili sauce, Chinese vegetables galore, and unusual cuts of meat.

My life changed AGAIN when H-Mart opened in Central Square in May. Now I could make a super quick stop at Central Square and pick up my favorite Japanese snacks, many Chinese items, and (naturally) tons of Korean specialties.

I was thrilled to find that both C-Mart and H-Mart carry beef shank cut lengthwise (not through the bone), which is the exact cut used for many favorite Taiwanese dishes, such as my mom's soy braised beef shank and Taiwan's national dish: Beef Noodle Soup.

I've been making this dish a lot more, especially this past winter because it was so cold. More recently, I tried using the pressure cooker to make it, which worked out great and saved tons of time.

Now, instead of spending 3-4 hours on a weekend slowly simmering this time-intensive dish, I can "crank out" a delicious beef noodle soup with fall-apart soft meat in just about an hour. Perfect for a weeknight meal.

Beef shank is the traditional meat used to make this dish, although I've seen recipes that substitute it with beef stew meat. I've personally never done that before, and my guess is that it won't be nearly as good. What makes shank so delicious in beef noodle soup is the presence of a lot of tendon / connective tissue, which contributes to rich, collagen-filled broth that results. The bone-in version that you get in normal western-style grocery stores works fine too. In fact, that's the version I used in my hand-pulled noodle video tutorial.

Begin by prepping all your ingredients. Chop your ginger and scallions. Mince the garlic. Cut up the shank into 1-2 inch pieces.

Bring a pot of water to boil and briefly boil the beef chunks for about 5 minutes. The main purpose for doing this is to "clean" the meat of its blood bits, etc. It will result in a clearer, cleaner-looking, and prettier broth, though if you're in a bind and you don't care about the look, it's a step that can be skipped.

Within a minute or two you'll start to see this ugly pinkish foam float to the top.

After about 5-7 minutes it'll get pretty thick and stop getting thicker (which means you're pretty much done).

Dump out the dirty water in the sink and rinse the beef pieces. Set them aside.

In a pressure cooker, stir-fry ginger, garlic, scallions, and star anise with vegetable oil over medium heat until fragrant.

Add beef shank pieces and chili bean sauce (or "broad bean paste with chili) "豆瓣酱" and saute for a few minutes until the beef is slightly browned.

This is the brand of chili bean sauce I like to use. I actually buy the spicy version, and they call it "broad bean paste with chili" in English. Most importantly you want to see the Chinese characters豆瓣酱, or "dobanjiang." I like the above brand because it's from Taiwan.

Add tomatoes, rice wine, and rock sugar (can substitute with brown sugar if necessary).

If you don't have fresh tomatoes, you can totally used canned whole tomatoes. In the above photo, I cut up several canned whole San Marzano tomatoes (they are tiny so I used 2-3), which worked out great.

The amount of rock sugar is really personal taste. Bryan hates sweet foods (e.g., he's not a fan of most Americanized Thai food), and thus I only add a tiny bit (we're talking like "dime sized rock") of rock sugar. Other people will add up to ¼ cup, which will make the soup definitely a bit sweet. You can always adjust the flavor at the end.

Finally, add just enough water so that everything is covered.

Cook under high pressure for about 30 minutes. Then slowly release the pressure. Because I was not in a hurry, I just turned off the heat and let it naturally release pressure. You can also release pressure more quickly using the method recommended by the manufacturer. In the case of my Kuhn Rikon I just press down on the little lever on top and it released steam until the pressure is back down.

Once the lid is off, you can use this opportunity to quickly cook some vegetables. I usually just cook some baby bok choy, though recently I saw a version made my blogger friend Joy Huang from The Cooking of Joy where she used napa cabbage. That was delicious as well.

The choice is totally yours. Every region, every family, and everyone's mom makes beef noodle soup just a bit differently, so go ahead and start your own tradition.

If you're really ambitious, you could even try hand-pulling your own noodles. Here's a fun video I made back in 2010 showing how to make both the hand-pulled noodles and this beef noodle soup! Warning - hand pulling noodles is really tricky and noodle dough is super finicky. Consider yourself warned!

These days it's much too easy just to pick up a package of fresh homemade noodles from either C-Mart or H-Mart. Ah, I am so spoiled now.

Enjoy!

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

Serves 4
2 lbs beef shank (cut up into chunks)
1 T vegetable oil
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch chunk of ginger, chopped
2 star anise
2 scallion stalks, chopped
2 T chili bean sauce (or broad bean paste with chili / 辣豆瓣酱)
½ cup soy sauce
1 tomato, sliced
¼ cup rice wine
1 teaspoon to ¼ cup rock sugar (optional)
chili sauce (optional)
5 cups water (or enough to cover the beef)

Optional vegetables
blanched bok choy
napa cabbage
fresh cilantro as garnish

Preboiling
Bring a pot of water to boil and briefly boil the beef chunks for about 5 minutes, or until a white foam forms at the top of the water. Drain dirty water, rinse beef shanks, and set aside.

Stir-frying
1. In the pressure cooker over medium high heat, saute garlic, ginger, scallions, and star anise in vegetable oil until fragrant.

2. Add beef shank pieces and chili bean sauce and saute for a few minutes, until the beef is slightly browned.

3. Add soy sauce and cook for 2 minutes.

4. Add tomatoes, rice wine, and rock sugar.

5. Add water until everything is just covered.

6. Bring up to high pressure and cook under pressure for 30 minutes. Slowly release pressure and serve.
ALTERNATE: If you don't have a pressure cooker
Bring pot to medium high heat until boiling and then reduce to a simmer for 2-4 hours, or until the beef is fall-apart tender.

7. Adjust taste to preference (e.g., add chili sauce to make it spicier; add more soy sauce, salt, or rock sugar)

8. Serve with blanched bok choy and noodles

9. Optionally garnish with cilantro (Bryan's favorite!)

Yum!

And they are just as good if not better as leftovers the next day!

The post Quick & Easy Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup (in a pressure cooker!) appeared first on Tiny Urban Kitchen.

Heart Shaped Bacon Wrapped Pork Loins (with yuzu noodles & 65 degree sous vide egg)

Jennifer Che — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 15:58:00 +0000

I'm having way too much fun playing with heart shapes this week.I'm sort of in shock that, in all these years, I never tried to make any heart-shaped food. It's no secret that I love "playing" with food, creating fun shapes, designs, and characters. A simple search for Totoro on the blog will give you a taste of the crazy creations I've made in the past. Despite all that, it never occurred to me to make heart-shaped food for Valentine's Day.I think my inspiration that started with the heart-bellied Totoros got my creative juices churning. Tonight for dinner - just for the fun of it - I decided to try making these cute little heart-shaped bacon wrapped pork loins.

They fry up beautifully on the pan and aren't too hard to make. I basically roughly cut a triangle of pork loin and then cut out a corner from one side in order to make a heart-like shape.

Add salt and pepper to season the pork, and then wrap the whole thing in bacon.

I fried it on a pan over medium heat, cooking on each side until it crisped up nicely (several minutes). It was a bit tricky to keep the bacon tight against the indented part; it kept wanting to flatten out. I tried sticking a chopstick (a metal one!) in the groove while frying to keep the bacon snug against the pork. It helped, but next time I might try to find something a bit heavier or bigger to weight it down more.

The finished product can easily be sliced for all sorts of fun presentations.

I served it with cold hand-pulled noodles (no, I did not pull them myself this time). Instead I bought some refrigerated fresh ones at C-Mart. The noodles were tossed with yuzu kosho (one of my favorite condiments in the world), bonito, and dashi powder. On top I added a velvety 65 °C (149 °F) sous vide egg.

Simple, elegant, and delicious: the perfect quick yet thoughtful weeknight meal. Serve with a side of vegetables (we had some classic Chinese chives with 5-spice bean curd), and you're all set for dinner.

Enjoy!

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The Art of Hand Pulled Noodles - Noodle making class in Beijing, China

Jennifer Che — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:56:00 +0000

It's arguably becoming a lost art.Many of you might know that I'm a bit obsessed with hand-pulled noodles.

OK, I should clarify. My husband is obsessed with eating fresh, handmade noodles. As a result, I became obsessed with figuring out how to obtain them. After an exhaustive search of Boston, we realized that hand-pulled noodles do not exist in Boston.

So I set out to learn how to make them myself. It wasn't easy. I soon learned that the internet is sparse when it comes to information in English for making hand-pulled noodles. Sure, there's some information, but at the end of the day, I think a lot of the information is still hidden in China.

So when I went to Beijing last fall (after having made my noodle making Project Food Blog post), you know what I had to do. I signed up for a hand-pulling noodle class with a Chinese noodle master.

First, we learned that Beijing-style hand-pulled noodles are different than the Shaanxi-style hand-pulled noodles. Shaanxi-style hand-pulled noodles make use of a base (called kansui or jiansui), which is typically a mixture of potassium carbonate and sodium carbonate. The version I had been making at home was based on this method, but used sodium bicarbonate instead (baking soda), since it was easier to obtain in US markets. Beijing noodle dough, on the other hand, is simple, consisting only of high gluten four (te jing fen), water, and salt.

What causes hand-pulled noodle dough to be flexible and stretchy?

1) an increased water to dough ratio
2) the addition of salt
3) continual kneading and twirling of the dough

Because the class was only 2 hours long, the instructor had pre-kneaded the dough for us already. (Yeah, I know, he did the hardest part!) Nevertheless, it was interesting to learn some proper techniques related to dough twisting and pulling.

The idea is to stretch out the dough like a rope, bring the two ends together while twirling, and then stretch the dough again to its original length. Check out the video below to see this in action. You do this over and over and over again until the dough reaches the right consistency. It takes a bit of experience to be able to tell when the dough is the right consistency. A proper dough will be soft, pliable, and can stretch easily without breaking.

Many things can affect the quality of the dough - humidity in the air that day, temperature, gluten percentage in your dough. He told us that on a humid summer day you may only need to twirl for about 10 minutes, whereas in the winter you may need to twirl for 15-20 minutes.

Ideally, you twirl in different directions each time: counterclockwise, then clockwise, etc.

When the dough is finally ready, then you begin pulling. For Dragon's Whiskers, which are super, super thin, you end up pulling the dough close to ten times! That's like 1024 noodles! The noodles become so thin, you really can't boil them. They would fall apart if you tried. Instead, these types of super thin noodles are typically deep fried.

If you want to make noodles for boiling, typically you don't want to stretch them more than 4-5 times!

Despite the fact that I had some experience with making noodles, I was surprised how hard it was when I tried do everything "properly." I guess the lesson is - don't learn bad habits! They are hard to unlearn.

Here's a brief video I made of the class. Below, I've provided the recipe that they gave to us.If you want to take the class yourself, check out the offerings on their website.

If you have trouble watching the video embedded here, click here to go straight to Youtube

Disclaimer: I have not tried this recipe at home. The only recipe I have validated at home is the one from my first blog post on this topic.

Hand Pulled Noodle Dough

167g high gluten flour (te jing fen)

100g water

1 teaspoon salt

Combine flour, water, and salt. Knead dough until elastic (possibly up to an hour, or you can try using a stand mixer on speed 4 or a bread machine). Cover the dough with plastic and let it rest at room temperature for at least 15-20 minutes (to relax the gluten). Twist the dough for about 15-20 minutes or until it is nice and stretchy. Pull noodles.

This is part 14 of the China Series detailing my recent trip to Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai.

Other posts in this series:

part 1: Wander the Streets of Beijing

part 2: Xian'r Lao Man (handmade dumplings)

part 3: Made in China (Peking duck)

part 4: Noodle Bar (hand pulled noodles)

part 5: Bao Yuan Dumpling (handmade dumplings)

part 6: Da Dong (Peking duck)

part 7: Jia Jia Tang Bao (Soup dumplings / xiao long bao)

part 8: Yang's Fry Dumpling (Pan fried steamed buns / shen jian bao)

part 9: Din Tai Fung (dumplings)

part 10: Eating At the World Expo

part 11: Crystal Jade (Dim Sum)

part 12: Jiu Men Xiao Chi (Nine Gates Snack Street) - the best Street Snacks in Beijing

part 13: Noodle Loft (Mian Ku)

China: Lost in Translation

Happy Birthday Bryan: an Ode to Noodles and Ducks
How to make hand-pulled noodles, la mian, shou la mian,

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Garlic Chicken with Golden Noodles + Giveaway!

Jennifer Che — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:32:00 +0000

Ever since I was a kid, I've always loved "liang mian huang," the (literally) "two-faced" pan-fried noodle dish that you see at every Cantonese restaurant. Although the sauce-drenched center of the noodle "cake" usually had more flavor, I always opted for the crunchy, edge pieces.

I was thrilled when I discovered a recipe for this exact dish in A Spoonful of Ginger, a multiple award-winning Chinese cookbook by Nina Simonds.

Nina Simonds is a dear family friend and I've known her for as long as I can remember. She's also a wildly successful cookbook author, having won multiple awards (James Beard Foundation Book Award, IACP Cookbook Award just to name a few) and named in Newsweek Magazine as one of "America's Top 25 Asian Hands."

Nina has studied cooking extensively in Asia. Her cookbooks take classic Asian recipes and adapt them in a way that's simple, delicious, and suitable for the Western kitchen (and often Western supermarkets!).

I had never considered making golden pan-fried noodles myself at home. I always assumed I needed some hot wok or some fryer or something (nothing a tiny kitchen would have!). Nina has adapted the traditional Chinese method for the Western kitchen by making use of the broiler function of an oven.

Ingenious!

First, boil some thin egg noodles (I used ultra thin angel hair pasta, which worked great). After draining the pasta, toss in sesame oil and safflower oil, and then broil for about 10 minutes.

Flip over (this was the hardest part!) and then broil the other side for about 5 minutes or until golden brown. You can then leave the noodles in the oven on warm until your are ready with the rest of your dish.

Saute chicken briefly in a hot wok until it is no longer raw. Set chicken aside.

Clean the wok and then saute the aromatics (onions, garlic, and ginger) followed by the vegetables (in this case, snap peas).

Once everything is cooked, add back in the chicken, add the premixed "sauce" (oyster sauce, broth, wine, etc), and then toss to combine.

Throw all this on top of the crispy noodles and serve!

What dramatic presentation!

I like this particular recipe because it teaches a core technique that you can apply to a wide range of dishes. In the book, Nina briefly discusses how she loves cooking this dish during the winter because the dish is very "warming" (this book is focused on the Chinese concept of ying and yang [warm and cool] and how it applies to food). In the summer, however, she will substitute the beef with chicken or seafood and add many more vegetables.

GIVEAWAY!
I am thrilled to tell you about an exciting giveaway! In celebration of the re-release of her popular award-winning cookbook, A Spoonful of Ginger, Nina is hosting a giveaway contest where she's giving away TEN Chinese cooking starter kits! Better yet, she's promised to give away an additional FIVE starter kits specially to Tiny Urban Kitchen readers!

This kit is loaded with tons of useful supplies for someone who's just getting started with Chinese cooking.

A 14-inch rolled steel, heavy-gauge wok with wooden handles
A dome lid that fits perfectly in the wok, transforming it into a steamer or braising pan (not pictured)
A Chinese shovel that is designed to conform to the sides of the wok, making tossing food in the pan a breeze
A traditional Chinese handled strainer with a mesh wire basket that is used to scoop food out of a pan of hot oil or water and is an excellent strainer.
A steamer rack that fits perfectly into the bottom of a wok or any pan and holds a heatproof plate or bowl which contains the uncooked food.
A set of handsome, jet-black chopsticks
An autographed copy of the newly-reissued, best-selling cookbook, A Spoonful of Ginger, which won both the James Beard and IACP cookbook award for health

To enter you must complete all three of the below:

1. Follow @SpicesofLife on twitter
2. Retweet tweets containing #SpoonfulContest (you can do this automatically if you enter through her contest site here
3. Leave a comment below telling me your favorite Chinese dish!

Contest Ends ~~June 25, 2011~~
Update! The contest has been extended until JULY 2, 2011. Additionally, Nina is giving away an additional 4 wok kits plus 5 additional "runner ups" will get a free copy of the book!

GOOD LUCK!

For full details and to sign up, go to Nina's contest site here.

Garlic Beef (or chicken!) with Golden Noodles

Adapted from A Spoonful of Ginger by Nina Simonds

1 ½ lb boneless chicken

Marinade
3 ½ T soy sauce
2 T rice wine or sake
2 T minced garlic
1 T cornstarch

¾ lb thin egg noodles (vermicelli or angel hair)
1 ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil mixed with 1 teaspoon safflower or corn oil
5 ½ T safflower or corn oil
2 T minced garlic
1 ½ T minced fresh ginger
1 ½ red onions
¾ lb fresh snap peas
2 T rice wine or sake

Oyster Sauce
1 ½ cup classic chicken broth
6 T oyster sauce
1 12/ T rice wine or sake
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 ½ T corn starch

1. Cut chicken into thin slices on the diagonal. Put the slices in a bowl, add the Marinade, and toss lightly to coat. Let marinate for 20 minutes.

2. Boil noodles according to the box instructions until tender. Drain in colander. Rinse lightly to remove starch, and drain again through a colander. Pour the toasted sesame oil-safflower oil over the noodles and toss to coat. Spread the noodles out on a large baking sheet.

3. Heat broiler until very hot. Place the noodles 3 inches under the broiler ad cook for about 20 minutes, until they are golden brown. Flip them over with a spatula and brown on the other side. Cook until golden brown. Turn off the broiler and keep the noodles warm in an oven on low.

4. Heat a well-seasoned wok or large skillet, add 3 ½ T of oil, and heat until nearly smoking. Add chicken slices, and stir-fry over high heat until they lose their raw color and separate. Remove with a handled strainer and drain in a colander. Clean the wok.

5. Reheat the wok, add the remaining 2 T oil, heat for about 20 seconds, and add the garlic, ginger, and red onions. Stir-fry for 2 minutes, until the onion is soft. Add the snap peas and rice wine, and stir-fry for another 2 minutes, or until the snap peas are almost tender. Pour in the premixed Oyster Sauce and stir-fry until it thickens, taking care to prevent lumps. Add the cooked beef, and toss lightly in the sauce. Place the browned noodles on a platter and scoop the chicken and snap peas on top. Serve.

Disclaimer
Nina Simonds is a family friend whom I have known for decades. I received one of the starter cooking kits for free.

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Bok Choy Agar Noodles

Jennifer Che — Sun, 06 May 2012 02:46:00 +0000

This post is part of a larger series devoted to a Molecular Gastronomy focused meal I made: Molecular Gastronomy with an Asian Twist. Other posts in this series include Spherification (making "caviar", Pho Inspired Grilled Steak with Mint, Cilantro, and Lime, and Sweet Basil Pesto with Rice NoodlesPlaying with molecular gastronomy is fun, although things can get a bit wacky at times.

Like these crazy bok choy "noodles," for example.

Admittedly, making my own "caviar" using spherification was by far the "nerdiest" thing I did this past weekend. Nevertheless, I would give these green noodles a close second.

Here's the back story. As part of my original proposal to Foodbuzz for this Foodbuzz 24, 24 meal, I had promised to make bok choy "noodles" as part of a larger, molecular interpretation of a deconstructed Taiwanese beef noodle soup.

Funny thing is, I really had no idea how I was going to make these. I find that I often like to invent absurd and overly ambitious meals in my head, sometimes promising to deliver them without really thinking things through.

It bites me back sometimes when my fantastic proposals actually get accepted and I have to deliver.

Thankfully, the internet is full of solutions, and my friends had given me a nice, big bag of fun powders to try.

At the end of the day, under the pressure of time, I was actually able to deliver a meal that came surprisingly close to my original proposal.

This "deconstructed Taiwanese beef noodle soup" begins with the baby bok choy, a common vegetable used as the "green" part of a beef noodle soup. I decided to mix up the shapes and flavors, making the bok choy into a noodle instead.

I blended up a couple small stalks of bok choy and a small shallot in some dashi broth in the blender.

Heat up the bok choy "soup" with some agar agar, a red algae based gelatin.

Pour out the solution into appropriately-shaped containers. Since I was trying to make noodles, I tried to put them into square containers. Let set at room temperature or in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Remove from containers, and slice!

Though they look sort of like noodles, the texture is pretty different. It's kind of soft, breaks easily, and (frankly), isn't nearly as good as a real wheat-based noodle.

I think this recipe works better for making interesting vegetable "pates" or "terrines."

Nevertheless, it's a cool way to make some interesting, gluten-free noodles which incorporate any flavor you might want. I'm sure this would work with all sorts of other vegetables, such as arugula, basil, spinach, or maybe even carrots!

Bok Choy Agar "Noodles"
Ingredients
7 oz bok choy
1 small shallot
3.2g agar agar powder
¼ cup broth (I used dashi)
salt to taste
dash of sugar

Blend together bok choy, shallot and broth together until a fine puree forms. Heat 200g of the bok choy liquid with agar agar until boiling and agar agar is dissolved. It will become much thicker. Pour into a level, square surface up to about ½ inch thick and let cool for at least 1 hour.

Slice up into "noodles" and serve.

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