Pho Broth Recipe

Awesome Beef Tail Pho Broth Recipe

2 Beef Tails
10 Liters of Water
3 Medium Onions (quartered)
5 Inch Piece of Ginger (halved)
3 Cinnamon Sticks
1 1/2 Tablespoons Coriander Seeds
1 1/2 Tablespoons Fennel Seeds
9 Star Anise Pieces
9 Whole Cloves
1/3 Cup Fish Sauce
3 Tablespoons Sugar

Add bones to pot and fill with cold water. Bring to boil keep boiling for 5 minutes. Drain dirty water and bones. Rinse bones in warm water. Thoroughly clean pot.

Add clean bones and cold water to clean pot. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer.

Quarter onions, halve the ginger, then broil (turning occasionally) until charred/browned on all sides. Add to simmering pot.

Toast spices by adding them to dry frying pan and cooking on low heat until fragrant. Add to simmering pot.

Add fish sauce and sugar. Simmer all day or overnight.

Pro tip: wrap everything except bones in a tied cheese cloth before putting in pot to make it easier to filter.

West Lake Style Fish Soup

9 Cups Chicken Stock
1 Lb White Fish
Ginger
3 TBsp Soy Sauce
1/2 Cup Peas
1/2 Cup Corn
2 Eggs
1 TBsp White Pepper
2 TBsp Cornstarch
1 Cup Cilantro
1 TBsp Cooking Sherry or Wine (optional)
Glass noodles or thin rice noodles

Combine and heat chicken stock, soy sauce, and pepper. Add fish and cook until fish is crumbly. Mix cornstarch with a small amount of COLD water to dissolve, then mix into soup to thicken. Scramble eggs then stir into hot soup. If peas and corn are frozen, defrost then add to soup. Remove from heat, stir in cilantro, and serve immediately. Optionally add some thin rice noodles (a must for my wife).

West Lake Style Fish Soup

Homemade Kimchi (version 1.0)

IMG_20130411_205731

Ingredients:
1 head of napa cabbage (about 2 and 1/2 to 3 pounds)
1 pound of radish, cut into matchsticks
1/4 cup sea salt
1 and 1/2 cup water
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of ginger, minced
3 stalks of green onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes, or 2 tablespoons of cut-up fresh chilis
2 tablespoons sugar

Directions:

Chop up the cabbage into bite-sized pieces, and cut up the radish into medium-sized thin sticks. Mix together in a bowl.

Dissolve the sea salt into water. Pour over the cabbage and radish.

Let sit for at least 2 hours, mixing occasionally.

Drain the vegetables, but keep the liquid. Add the garlic, ginger, green onion, red pepper flakes, and sugar.

Mix well for several minutes.

Put vegetable mixture into large seal-able containers. Leave about 1 inch of space from the top. Pour salt liquid over the mixture until the liquid just covers the top of the mixture.

Seal the containers and keep at room temperature in a dark, dry environment. Leave for 1-3 days (depending on how fermented you like kimchi). After bubbles start appearing in the liquid, or gas starts pushing the container lid upwards, the kimchi is ready to be stored in the refrigerator.

Hot and Sour Soup (with Hand-cut Noodles)

What happens when your gas runs out for your gas stove? One answer is that you could find out how to use your rice cooker in more efficient and variety-filled ways than you ever have before. Our version of this, was to make Chinese hot and sour soup. The soup can be optionally served with hand-cut noodles, which I’ll also describe how to make below.

Ingredients:
10 cups water
about 1/2 kilo of ground beef, pork or chicken
large bowl of cold water
3/4 cup dried Shiitake mushrooms
1 and 1/2 cups lettuce or Nappa cabbage, chopped into slivers
3/4 cup dried orange flower (optional)
1/2 cup dried Chinese wood ear mushroom (optional)
4 slices ginger
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
red pepper flakes or rooster sauce
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
3 tablespoons corn starch, mixed in a little cold water
2 eggs, beaten
a bit of green onion (optional)
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
salt to taste
1 cup carrots, cut into slivers (optional)
1 cup bean sprouts (optional)
3/4 cup bamboo (optional)
3/4 cup baby corn (optional)
1/2 block of tofu (optional)

Soak the Shiitake, the orange flowers, and the wood ear mushrooms in the bowl of cold water. Let sit for half an hour.

Chop up the lettuce, ginger, garlic, and any other vegetables.

Bring the 10 cups of water to a boil in the rice cooker. Stir in the ground beef. After stirring briskly for several minutes, the meat should break apart into pieces.

Pour in the soy sauce, sesame oil, and vinegar. Mix in the sugar.

Chop up the wood ear mushrooms into large pieces, and cut the Shittake into slivers.

Mix all of the vegetables into the pot. Let cook for about 10-15 minutes.

Pour in the beaten eggs, stirring the pot while pouring. Then mix in the red pepper flakes and white pepper. Add salt to taste.

Serve the soup on top of hand-cut noodles. Sprinkle a bit of chopped green onion on top.

Hand-cut Noodles
(if you only have one rice cooker, pour your prepared hot and sour soup into another pot, and wash out the rice cooker pot in order to cook the noodles)

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup water

Stir and knead the flour and water together until a dough is formed that’s not too firm and not too soggy. Add extra flour or water as needed.

Knead the dough for another 2-3 minutes. Then split the dough into halves.

Roll out a half into a large, flat piece. Sprinkle flour over it generously.

Fold the flat piece into thirds. Then cut up the piece into slivers. Unfold each sliver. The result should be long noodles.

Boil a pot of water. Throw the noodles into the pot while boiling. Do not overfill the pot with noodles.

Stir slightly while the noodles are cooking, so they don’t stick to each other or to the pot.

After 10 minutes of cooking, take the noodles out of the pot. Serve immediately. For more noodles, use the other half of the dough, or save the other half for leftovers.

hot-n-sour-soup

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

Ingredients:
10 cups water
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup Chinese rice wine
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 2-cm cubes fresh ginger, cut into thin slices
5 garlic cloves
3-4 whole star anise pieces
1 kilo beef, cut into chunks
2 onions, cut into small chunks or thin slices
4-5 carrots, chopped
2-4 portions of egg noodles
1 chili pepper, sliced (optional)
cooking oil
salt
5 stalks of green onions, chopped
10 fresh cilantro stalks, chopped
 
 
Chop up all the vegetables (except the green onions and cilantro) and beef.
 
Sear the beef chunks in hot cooking oil for about 1 minute. Combine the beef (and residual meat juice) with water, soy sauce, rice wine, vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, star anise, onions, carrots, and chili in a large pot.
 
Let simmer on very low heat for at least 4 hours. For best results, cook in a crock pot overnight (about 8 hours). Beef should be very tender. Salt to taste.
 
In a separate pot, cook the noodles.
 
Chop up the green onions and cilantro.
 
Drain the noodles. Serve by pouring beef soup over the noodles and removing the ginger and star anise pieces. Sprinkle the green onions and cilantro on top.
 
Version 1.0 (B.A. -- before Andrew)

Version 1.0 — pre-Andrew version, made in my first year in Israel

 

 

Version 2.0 -- you can see the large ginger slices (which are not for eating, unless you're a hardcore Asian, which we are not although Andrew does come close)

Version 2.0 — you can see the large ginger slices (which are not for eating, unless you’re a hardcore Asian, which we are not although Andrew does come close)

 

 

Version 2.1 -- with hand-cut noodles, but that's for another post

Version 2.1 — with hand-cut noodles, but that’s for another post

Mama’s Fish

My asian gramma’s (Mama) steamed fish. Simple and so delicious.

Orange Roughy or Sole Fillets
Green onions – chopped
Ginger – match sticks

1) 2TBs oil – very hot
2) Soy Sauce / Sugar / Water

Lightly steam fish with onions and ginger on top. Pour both 1 & 2 onto fish to finish cooking.

Won Tons

This is the ingredient list for Diane’s home made won tons. Very delicious. Pretty much gotta wing it, then wrap it up in won ton skins.

Twice ground lean pork
shrimp
water chestnuts
cilantro
green onions
chinese 5 spice
ginger
salt
egg white
corn starch
wrappers
broth:
white radish
pork bones
shrimp
cilantro
thin noodles