When I ordered the Sheraton Taipei's beef noodle soup, I had no idea that I had made the perfect choice.
This soup is famous, I learned. It has been the hotel's signature dish for more than 20 years, and people go there just to eat it.
It's on the room service menu too, so that hotel guests can have it at any hour.
This is more important than you might think. In Taiwan, dinner is early. The Sheraton's restaurants close by 10 p.m. If you go in "late," say 8:30 or 9 p.m., you have to order everything at once to beat the kitchen's 9:30 p.m. deadline. And if you go in at 9:30, forget it.
I ordered the soup in the Lounge, which is the hotel bar. It's a big bowlful of meat and dark broth, perfumed with star anise. The chewy meat is U.S. beef, the noodles are fat, like udon, and baby choy sum adds a nice touch of greenery.
The condiments on the side are diced fresh red chile, pickled mustard greens, marinated cucumber and a halved duck egg that looked like it had been soaked in soy sauce.
The soup was so good that I asked for the recipe. Just a simple job of boiling meat in a soy sauce broth with a few seasonings, I thought.
Not so. It took me three days to make it, most of the time devoted to long hours of boiling. If you cooked everything in one day, it would take at least 10 hours, plus additional time for preparing the noodles and vegetables.
You'll need another day to shop for the ingredients. Any supermarket has stewing beef, but you'll have to go to a specialty market for beef tendon. My bowlful at the Sheraton didn't include tendon. I'm guessing that the server reported to the kitchen that a westerner had placed the order, and they left it out.
Instead of the usual recipe format, I've divided the procedure according to days. I've put in all the ingredients listed in the hotel recipe, even amomum tsaoko, which turned out to be Indian brown cardamom. The Chinese also call this spice grass fruit and add it to stews for subtle, but special, flavor.
My proportions may differ from the original, which I cut down to four servings, but the soup turned out quite well.
This amazed me, because I had to guess at so much of what I did. My noodles were thinner than those at the hotel, but they were authentic Chinese wheat flour noodles, which retain their consistency in hot liquid. Italian pasta would go flabby. I've put them at the top of the bowl (above) so you can see. The meats and broth are underneath.
You may make your own adjustments, using different noodles and leaving out the tendon. Just don't use tender beef that falls apart after long boiling. The servings are generous. You won't need any accompaniments, except perhaps a tall Taiwan Beer, which is what I had.
SHERATON TAIPEI BEEF NOODLE SOUP
DAY 1
THE STOCK
6 to 8 ounces beef knuckle bones
Bones from 2 chicken drumsticks, or other chicken bones
10 cups water
3/4 inch gingerroot, peeled and sliced
1 dried red chile
1 green onion, white part and some of the top, chopped
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 tablespoon Chinese soy bean paste
1 ounce Chinese rock sugar or 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 whole star anise
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
1 (2-inch) piece cassia or 1 inch stick cinnamon
1 small whole clove
Place the beef and chicken bones in a Dutch oven. Add the water. Bring to a boil over high heat and skim off the foam. Reduce the heat and boil gently for 2 hours.
Add the ginger, red chile, geen onion, soy sauce, wine, soy bean paste, sugar, star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, cassia and the clove and boil gently for 1 hour longer.
Cover loosely if too much water boils away. There should be at least 4 cups stock. Strain, place in a covered container and refrigerate.
DAY 2
THE MEATS
3 pounds beef for stewing
8 cups water
Salt
8 to 10 ounces beef tendon
Place the beef in a Dutch oven. Add the water and bring to a boil over high heat. Skim off the foam. Reduce the heat, add salt to taste and boil gently for 2 hours.
Remove the beef from the stock, place in a covered container and refrigerate.
Add the tendon to the stock. Add more water if necessary to cover. Boil gently for 2 hours. Remove the tendon, cool and wrap in foil. Refrigerate overnight.
Strain the stock and freeze for another use.
DAY 3
COMPLETING THE SOUP
1 tablespoon oil
7 green onions, including some of the tops, sliced
3/4 inch gingerroot, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small fresh red chile, sliced
2 whole star anise
1 piece dried orange or tangerine peel
1 small bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
1 Indian brown cardamom pod
The cooked beef and beef tendon
8 cups water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 teaspoon sugar
Heat the oil in a wok. Add the green onions, ginger, garlic and the chile and stir-fry 2 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.
Prepare a double thickness of cheesecloth. Place the green onion mixture in the center of the cheesecloth. Add the star anise, orange peel, bay leaf, peppercorns and cardamom pod. Bring the sides up around the seasonings and tie to make a pouch.
Place the cooked beef in a Dutch oven. Add the spice pouch, the water, soy sauce, wine and sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and boil gently for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove the beef from the liquid and set aside. Add the tendon to the liquid. If necessary, add more water to cover. Boil gently 1 1/2 hours.
Remove the tendon from the liquid and cut into bite-size pieces with a heavy knife. Set aside.
Strain the braising liquid. There should be at least 2 cups.
Combine the braising liquid and the stock from Day 1. There should be 6 cups liquid. If you don't have enough, add some of the reserved stock from Day 2 or water.
ASSEMBLY
4 stalks baby choy sum
3/4 pound dried Chinese wheat flour noodles
The beef and tendon
The stock and braising liquid
Chile oil, optional
Heat 4 large deep soup bowls.
Trim off the ends of the choy sum. Separate the leaves and wash.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the choy sum and boil 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from the pot with tongs and set aside.
Add the noodles to the pot and boil 4 minutes. Drain.
Divide the beef and tendon among the soup bowls. Divide the noodles among the bowls, then the choy sum.
Heat the combined stock and braising liquid to boiling. Taste for seasoning and add soy sauce or salt if needed. Pour 1 1/2 cups boiling liquid into each bowl.
Serve with chile oil for seasoning, if wanted, and optional garnishes such as pickled cucumber strips, pickled mustard greens, minced fresh red chile and halved, soft-boiled eggs.
Eat with chopsticks and a Chinese soup spoon.
Makes 4 servings.
Bring more water to a boil.
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