Recipe — soupy beef noodles

This was originally meant to be pho bo, but we can’t seem to get it. This alternative is pretty tasty, though.

Serves two.

Ingredients
1 sirloin steak, sliced thinly (very thinly)
2 beef stock cubes
2 bowls boiled (hot) water
1 star anise
Half a cinammon stick
4 cloves garlic (less if you’re not so into garlic)
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, sliced
2 handfuls of vegetables (we alternate between chopped green leafy and bean sprouts)
Half a tbsp of fish sauce
Half a lime
2 servings of flat rice noodles (we’ve been using udon, though)

Method

1. Pour the hot water into a saucepan. Crumble in the beef stock cubes and bring it to a boil.
2. Add the garlic, ginger, cinammon stick and star anise. Boil for 5 minutes.
3. While the stock is boiling, cook your noodles. If the noodles take longer than 5 minutes to cook, start before you prepare the stock.
4. Add the vegetables into the stock. Boil for another few minutes so they start to soften.
5. Place the noodles into two bowls. Arrange the beef slices (yes, still raw) on top of the noodles.
6. Add the fish sauce and squeeze the lime juice into the stock, then take it off the heat.
7. Pour the boiling hot soup over the beef and noodles. Swish the soup around until the beef is cooked.
8. Serve.

(Neil and I found that adding the beef to the soup while it was still on the stove, even if only for a minute, overcooked it.)

• 30 Jan 2008

• Thinking