Best Beef And Chinese Lettuce Soup Recipes

BRAISED BEEF NOODLE SOUP (红烧牛肉面)

Steps:

• First place the aromatics in a piece of cheesecloth tied tightly with kitchen string or disposable/fillable tea filter bags. That's the cinnamon, black cardamom, fennel seeds, star anise, cloves, tangerine peel, bay leaves, white peppercorns, licorice slices, sand ginger, and amomum white cardamon. Phew. It'll be worth it. Trust me.
• Next, rinse off the beef under cold running water. In a soup pot, add 16 cups of water, the ginger, and beef. Bring to a boil and cook for a few more minutes until you see some foam floating on the top of the water. Skim the foam off. You don't want these impurities from the beef making your soup cloudy. Turn off the heat, fish out the pieces of beef, and strain the resulting broth through a fine-meshed strainer, into a heatproof bowl or other pot. Set aside, along with the ginger pieces.
• In another large, thick-bottomed soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the rock sugar, the white parts of the scallion, and the garlic. Cook for a few minutes until the scallions are lightly seared. Add the beef, turn up the heat, and mix everything well.
• Cook for about 5 minutes, and stir once or twice in between. Now add the Shaoxing wine, dark soy sauce, and light soy sauce, and stir everything together well so that the beef is coated in the soy sauce.
• Now add the aromatics, plus the daikon, and the broth and ginger pieces that you boiled the beef in. Bring everything to a boil and immediately turn the heat down to medium. Simmer for 90 minutes. The broth should be steadily simmering where you can see water moving in the pot, but not at a rolling boil.
• After 90 minutes, turn off the heat and let it stand (with the lid on) for another hour. Now your soup base is ready. Reheat, remove the aromatics, and add salt to taste before serving. Just remember, adding salt too early will dry out the beef.
• Cook the noodles according to the package instructions, strain, and transfer to a large serving bowl. Blanch a handful of your leafy greens of choice in the noodle water, and add it to the noodles. Then, ladle in the beef and the soup. Top with the chopped green parts of the scallions you set aside earlier and some chopped cilantro (optional). And if you really can't resist a bit of spice, add a spoonful of chili oil. Wink! Wink!
• Enjoy!

CHING'S CLASSIC BEEF NOODLE SOUP

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallots and onions and cook until softened, 3 to 4 minutes, and then stir in the ginger, garlic and chiles and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute. Add the beef and stir-fry until it begins to brown, and then pour in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and cook until the meat is very tender, 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the udon according to package instructions. Drain and rinse under cold water. Set aside.
• Add the carrots to the simmering soup, cover, and cook until crisp-tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Whisk together the sugar, bean sauce and soy sauce in a small bowl until the sugar is dissolved and stir it into the soup. While stirring, pour the cornstarch slurry into the soup and cook until thickened, about 1 minute.
• Just before serving, divide the noodles between 2 bowls. Stir the Romaine into the broth and ladle the hot soup over each bowl. Garnish with chopped scallions and cilantro and serve immediately.

BEEF AND CHINESE LETTUCE SOUP

Steps:

• 1. Slice beef thin. Combine soy sauce and oil. Add to beef and toss. Let stand 30 minutes, turning meat occasionally. 2. Bring stock to a boil. Meanwhile cut lettuce in 2-inch sections. 3. Add lettuce to stock with salt and sugar and simmer, uncovered, until nearly done (about 10 minutes). 4. Add beef and simmer, uncovered, 3 to 4 minutes more. VARIATION: * For the Chinese lettuce, substitute either alone or in combination: celery, shredded Swiss chard or spinach leaves, cut in half or water cress, cut in 2-inch sections. Reduce cooking time in step 3 to about 2 or 3 minutes. The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook. ©1994 by Gloria Bley Miller.

CHINESE FISH AND LETTUCE SOUP

Steps:

• Thinly slice the boneless fish and soak in the marinade.
• Shred the lettuce and set aside.
• Cook the ginger, oil and salt just until the ginger begins to brown a little bit. Add to the soup stock and bring to a heavy simmer.
• Just prior to serving, drain the marinade from the fish and add the fish to the soup pot, all at once, along with the lettuce and the rice wine or sherry.
• Bring back to a full simmer, then remove from stove.
• Do not overcook the soup.
• Add a few drops of sesame oil and pepper for garnish, and serve immediately.