Noodle cravings! Noodles Noodles Noodles!  I love noodles! I love thin noodles and thick rice noodles.  Here is my take on one of my favorite noodle dishes, beef ho fun noodles.  It is pretty simple to make but does take a long time to cook.

You will need onion, garlic, ginger, daikon (I used green and white), carrot, green onion, beef (preferably beef brisket but I used stewing beef because I couldn’t find any), oxtail, beef stock, and spices (cinnamon, star anise, all spice and bay leaf).

One thing that I like doing is using your time efficiently in the kitchen, especially when you don’t have the time.

First thing to do is to start prepping your stock.  In a large pot, put in the meat and oxtail and enough cold water to cover.  Bring this to a boil.

Mean while chop up all your veggies into big chunks.

Prep the spices by putting it in a strainer like this or wrapped in some cheese cloth.

Once the meat and water boils, you will get some sludge like this.  Gross. The foamy stuff is the blood and impurities.  Drain and rinse the meat and pot. Trust me this does not remove all the flavor. It just keeps the broth nice and clean.

Put the meat back into the clean pot and  pour in the beef stock and one extra box of water. Haha I use the box as a measuring device.  This is just 4 cups of water. Choose the no salt or low sodium one because it is better to add your own salt at the end.

To this pot, add all your cut up veggies and spices. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat to allow the soup to simmer for about 3 hours.  Yes this is where it takes a long time.  The meat will be tender after this.

About 1 hour before you want to eat, prepare your noodles.  I bought fresh noodles. I usually fail at separating them because I throw them into boiling water and then it all falls apart. Other people use dry noodles to prevent this. I guess an option would be using the Vietnamese dry pho noodles.  I found this method to work really well for these fresh noodles and you get long chewy rice noodles.  Soak the rice noodles in hot tap water.  It doesn’t have to be really hot. Just warm enough to soften the rice noodles. Allow this to soak for at least 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes, check to see how pliable the noodles are.  Gentle pull apart the noodles.  If you find the noodles are not soft enough and are still sticking together or breaking, then drain and pour in more hot tap water. Allow to sit again for a couple minutes and drain again.  Repeat if necessary.  Another trick is to microwave the noodles but I don’t like this method because it still gets sticky.    When you are ready to eat, drain the noodles and pour boiling water over them.  The noodles will soften really quickly.  You will just need to leave them for 1-3 minutes.  Drain and portion out into your bowls.

The soup should be ready at this time.  Add salt and pepper to taste. I leave all the veggies and meat in the broth and it pour over the noodles.

Garnish with green onions.  A trick to keep them fresh is to place a paper towel under the cut green onions. You can store them in this container in your fridge for a couple days. It prevents the green onion from rotting and going bad.

I like to serve this dish with some steam broccoli, because you can never get enough veggies! I hope you enjoy your perfect bowl of noodles.  Try it with some chili oil or hot sauce!

Beef Noodle Soup – Beef Ho Fun

Inspiration http://www.chinasichuanfood.com/beef-ho-fun-noodle-soup/

These are the ingredients I used. The quantities can be adjusted.

• 2 small white daikon
• 1 small green daikon
• 1 box beef broth 900ml no salt 1 + 1 box of water (just fill up the box when you are done)
• 1 kg of stewing beef or beef brisket
• 1 kg of ox tail
• 1 onion
• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 inch piece of ginger
• 1 large Asian carrot
• green onion for garnish
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• 5- 7 whole allspice berries
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 4-7 whole star anise