braised beef brisket noodle soup

something i've missed from home is the cantonese style braised beef brisket served with noodles and soup.. so i've tried to recreate it.. the soup is especially yummy because the gravy from the braised beef is poured into the soup.. heavenly..



Ingredients (this time i'm gonna give a rough estimate of the measurements which is good for 3 serves, but adjust to ur preference.. i didn't follow it.. lol):
- 1.5 lbs beef brisket, cut into 1.5 inch cubes
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1.5 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 2 tbsp shao xing wine
- 0.5 tbsp garlic
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 star anise
- 0.5 tsp peppercorns
- 0.5 tsp five spice powder
- 1 tsp sugar
- 3 cups water
- 1 carrot, cut into desired size (i.e., thumb or slightly bigger - too small and it'll disintegrate completely easily)
- garnish: chopped spring onions and red cut chilli

Method:
1. Put 1 thsp of oil into pot, heat it and brown beef. Remove from pot and set aside.
2. Add all the other ingredients (except for the carrots), stir and boil.
3. When mixture is boiling, return beef. Reduce heat, simmer covered for 1.5 hours.
4. Add carrots, and simmer another 30 minutes till carrots are softened.
5. Serve with noodles and pour gravy into soup. Gravy to be added to soup to desired taste.
6. Garnish with chopped spring onions and fried onions (bawang goreng).
7. Serve with separate saucer of cut red chilli in soy sauce.. Alternatively, the chinese chilli oil mixture is fantastic with this.

The noodles I used are instant egg noodles, so pretty much just boil them and use them. You can use any other noodle you like, but the traditional cantonese noodles used were egg noodles. The soup base was just stock, I used chicken stock for it. Don't make the chicken stock too rich as the flavour should come from the beef gravy.

Some things I did differently from the above recipe is to add beef stock; i didn't have star anise so i omitted it and replaced the hoisin sauce with oyster sauce.

Bawang Goreng, or fried shallots is simply red shallots (the small red onions) thinly sliced and fried to a golden crisp. Fantastic as a garnish for almost any asian dish! You'll find it on mee goreng, nasi goreng etc.. you can do it yourself.. if you do it yourself, ensure you do not char the onions, we want it golden brown not burnt. and keep the oil! it's gorgeous, can be used interchangeably with sesame oil.. my mum does it herself and uses the oil to flavour congee, steamed eggs, veges and even fish.. alternatively, most asian grocery stores stock bawang goreng ready-made..

bon appetit!