It was quite an adventure to make this soup! First of all, I decided to take a trip to the Asian supermarket near my town (H Mart) and for those that have never been to one, just know that it can be overwhelming. I was pleasantly surprised that for a Sunday, it was quite empty.
My first mistake was going to H Mart without knowing the layout. I must have circled isles over and over again looking for something, not realizing that I was just in the wrong section of the store altogether. An hour later, I was starting to feel overwhelmed and I had most of my ingredients so I told myself that what I could make do with what I had bought and substitute as necessary. But all of that was worth it in the end! Just thinking about this soup makes my mouth water. And yes, it is spicy, but you can adjust as necessary by adding more or less bean paste and dried chilies (or red pepper flakes).
This soup can be made in an Instant Pot or over the stove, and since I don't have an Instant Pot the below is written for the stove top. To read what you need to do with an Instant Pot, check out the recipe on The Woks of Life. Please note that if you are cooking on a stove, it needs to simmer for 3 hours, so plan accordingly!
Servings: 8-10. You can freeze individual servings in a ziplock bag for a later time, which is especially useful for CORVID-19!
Ingredients:
3 lbs beef shank, cut into 1 or 2-inch chunks (I could only find hind-shank)
2 tbsp oil
2 inch piece of fresh ginger, smashed
6 garlic cloves, smashed
3 scallions, cut into 2-inch segments
1 onion, wedged
1 tomato, wedged
4 dried chilies, ripped in half (I used red pepper flakes)
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp spicy bean paste (douban jiang - see below what I used)
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup Shaoxing wine (rice cooking wine, substitutes include dry sherry, mirin or cooking sake)
Chinese aromatic herbs packet (lu bao)*
*The Woks of Life offers a DIY spice packet, but it was too much work in my opinion. I could not find lu bao so below is what I used instead as well as the ingredients in the spica packet. I was going to add bay leaves but forgot to buy them!
For serving:
Fresh noodles (above is what I used)
Bok choy
Cilantro, finely chopped - optional
Scallions, finely chopped - optional
Pickled mustard greens or kimchi - optional
Directions:
In a large pot, boil water and add the beef. Let it come back to a boil and let the beef sit for 1 minute, strain and rinse with fresh water, set aside. In an even larger pot (8 qt or more, mine barely fit in a 6 qt), saute oil, ginger, garlic, scallions, and onion in that order under lightly caramelized and onion turns translucent. Add tomato and dried chili (I used red pepper flakes), then the rinsed meat. Add the tomato paste, spicy bean paste, sugar, soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine (or substitute) and mix thoroughly. Add 8 cups of water and the spice packet, stir to combine. Cook on low simmer for 3 hours.
When ready to eat, cook noodles per package instructions and blanch your bok choy. Serve beef stew over a serving of noodles and bok choy. I used about 1-1.5 cup of beef stew per serving. Add cilantro, scallions, and mustard greens or kimchi to taste.
Recipe modified from The Woks of Life.
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