This dish took about 2 hours and 20 minutes to make.
Background
I asked Casey, my sister, what I should cook next and she said I should make Mom’s Taiwanese beef noodle soup. It’s one of the most common and popular dishes in Taiwan — you can find a restaurant that serves it almost anywhere in Taipei. It features a clear broth (Americans might call it water) with beef chunks and noodles and sometimes tomatoes and vegetables and radish I think. I asked Mom for her recipe and she typed it out for me. Additionally, Casey offered to help.
Ingredients
Mom’s recipe did not include quantities. I asked ChatGPT for quantities based on Mom’s recipe and to serve 4-5 people. We’ll see how that goes. The quantities below are from ChatGPT unless marked with an asterisk *. (Why is this font weird? Who wants the asterisk not to be superscripted??)
- 2.28 pounds of beef chuck roast – local butcher shop (ChatGPT said 2-2.5 pounds)
- 5 slices of ginger
- 7 stalks of green onion (separate white and green parts)
- 6 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons* of Taiwanese rice wine
- enough water broth to cover meat and vegetables (I’m using low sodium chicken broth)
- 2* bay leaves – international grocery
- 1 daikon radish – international grocery
- 2 carrots (Mom said optional)
- 2 tomatoes
- salt
- Japanese somen noodles – international grocery
- white pepper
Recipe
1. I began prepping everything. First, I put a pot of water on the stove to boil. I cut the beef into bite-sized pieces. When the water boiled, I added the beef chunks in small handfuls. Promptly, I removed the water and rinsed the beef in cold water. Then I set it aside.
Casey and I cut the green onions, separating white and green sections. We minced the garlic, Casey sliced the ginger, I cut the tomatoes, we peeled and cut the radish and carrots. Casey got mad at me because I didn’t wash those first. I did wash the tomatoes though because they felt dusty.
2. Then I took out the orange pot (ceramic? cast iron? enameled?), put it on medium-high heat, then added avocado oil, and then the garlic, ginger, and the white parts of the green onion.
3. After a minute, I added the beef, and rice wine, letting it saute until it was brown and the wine had burned off. Casey helped with this.
4. Once that was done, I added the (32 oz container) of chicken broth. That wasn’t enough liquid, so I filled the remaining space with water, and added the bay leaves (I used more than two). While I waited for it to boil, I washed the cutting board and knives I used.
5. After I put the lid on and it boiled, I added the radish and carrots. Once it boiled again, they were far from cooked so I reduced the burner to low heat and placed the lid on the pot with a crack so it could simmer. (I think that’s what simmering is?) This took a while.
6. When the radish and carrots both seemed about soft enough to eat, I added the tomatoes and Casey cooked the Japanese noodles according to the instructions on the package. After maybe five or 10 minutes of the tomatoes simmering, I removed the pot from heat and the noodles and soup were both ready to be served into bowls, then seasoned with salt (generously) and white pepper, and decorated with the green parts of green onions. Hooray!
Result
Not bad, in my opinion.
Casey said, “It’s nowhere near Mom’s but it’s still pretty good.” I agree: if Mom made this I’d say “this isn’t your best work” but it’s still very good!
Dad said, “Needs more salt. You’re a wonderful child.” Then when “It’s pretty good. I think if you cook it longer then it’d be even better. The tomatoes could be more soft.” Dad thinks I could add more beef, proportionally.
My friend, Leo, who works at the butcher shop, came over to try it and thought it wasn’t bad but agreed that it needed more salt.
Learnings
- Tomatoes and radish needed to be cooked longer
- Radish and carrots needed to be cut smaller
- Too much radish, according to Casey and Dad
- Dad said more beef?
- I would love if there was some greenery in it … maybe bok choy? I’m not sure.
- The beef needed to be cut larger, and maybe beef broth would’ve made it more flavorful. Oh, just kidding, Mom just uses water.
Conclusion
I’m sure this will taste better tomorrow and even better the day after. Not bad at all considering my complete lack of experience.
Thank you so much to Casey for helping!
This one was so much more rewarding than the last one. I’ll probably try this recipe again and make some adjustments. Though, I have to say, with enough salt, it’s pretty good. Ok bye!