Beef Noodle Soup or Niu Rou Mian

 This is a labor of love kinda meal.  It's so delicious, but it takes all day.  It doesn't seem like much written out but we were blown away at how excellent this was. Some ingredients you might have to get at the Asian market.

Recipes from my brother, Elain Yang and Made in Taiwan  by Clarissa Wei

For the broth-

3-4 lb chopped beef bones with meat on them

2 tbsp cooking sake

1 yellow onion, cut roughly into eighths

2-4 scallions, cut roughly into large pieces

1” chunk of ginger, peeled and sliced

1 tbsp hondashi

In a large pot put your beef bones in and cover with water

Over high heat bring everything to a boil for about 5 minutes and then strain

Rinse the bones well to get off any yucky bits

Add in your sake, onion, scallions, and ginger

Cover everything again with fresh water

Bring to a boil and simmer 4-6 hours

You've going to want to have about 8-10 cups in the end

If doing over the stove, you'll want to add water a few times

*Next time I might do this in the instant pot. Not sure if the recipe writers would approve. I'll try it once though.

Once you're done, strain everything through a fine mesh sieve and throw any the solids

Add your hondashi and taste for seasoning

(I was so sad when I tasted it the first time. It didn't taste like much and I had babysat it on the stove for 5 hours. The hondashi really helped though)

Skim off any fat that rises to the top, even better if you do this the night before so you can just lift off the cold fat.

For the soup

2lb pot roast, or chuck roast

1 large yellow onion (cut roughly 80% into med size pieces, the rest should be minced)

4 scallion, white and green separated (cut the green into large dices and mince the white)

4 large garlic cloves (smashed into large chunks and diced)

2 large tomato, cut into large cubes

2” chunk of ginger, peeled, sliced 

1/4 cup dark soy sauce

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp cooking sake

3 tbsp chili paste or to your desired spice level

1-2 tbsp rock sugar

2 tsp five spice powder

4 star anise

½ tsp Szechuan powder (1 tsp for a more spicy version)

8-10 cups bone broth soup

1 bag/batch/unit baby bok choy, heads trimmed and separated (the smallest kind you can find)

Hot cooked noodles of your choice, we used some what noodles but choose whatever looks good

Season your pot roast on both sides with salt and fresh cracked pepper

In a large cast iron pan with flavorless oil, heat over medium high heat and then sear both side of the meat

Remove to a cutting board and then cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks, or smaller if you'd like

In a large pot over medium heat, add some flavorless oil and saute the smaller cuts of onion, scallion, garlic, and all the ginger and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds

Add in the rock sugar, 2 tbs chili paste, and 1 tbs sake stirring until the sugar is melted

Add in the beef and any juice with another 1 tbs sake and stir to cover the beef in sauce

Cook for another 5 minutes

Add in the beef broth, the larger cuts of the onion, scallions, and garlic, chopped tomato, dark soy sauce, 1/4 cup of sake, 1 tbs chili paste, five spice, peppercorn powder, and anise pods

Bring to a boil over high heat then cover and simmer about 2-3 hours or until the beef is very tender

Serve with noodles and some blanched bok choy leaves

Traditionally you should take out the beef then strain out the soup and toss the solids, putting the now clear soup base into your bowl with the noodles, beef, and bok choy

If you want to skip the last straining part, you can do that as well