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The last time I went to Tai Chung 台中 in Taiwan, I had this delicious bowl of Taiwanese beef noodle soup 牛肉面 that taste sooooo gooooo I can’t help but get a second portion. I love how flavourful the soup broth is, laden with fall-apart beef and springy noodles. That’s the kind food that spells home and love. It takes hours and hours of brewing that broth. Big flavour always requires long hours of hard work. But to me, time is a luxury. And I’m always looking for ways to save time so I can do more things, the typical urbanite right? Not unless you have a pressure cooker.
Traditional Taiwanese beef noodle soup simmers for many hours to coax collagen out of the beef shank and depth from the aromatics. A pressure cooker collapses that into about 40 minutes, while actually intensifying the flavours — the sealed environment drives the aromatics deep into the meat. The result is tender, gelatinous beef with a broth that tastes like it’s been on the stove all day.
In this recipe, I used the Ninja Foodie 11-in-1 Multi-cooker and I am absolutely blown away by how easy and user friendly this kitchen equipment is, plus the results you get. I’m totally sold! Maybe I can try making this rice wine chicken or this pig’s trotter vinegar using the pressure cooker.
Ingredients to make Taiwanese beef noodle soup
Making Taiwanese beef noodle soup might sound daunting due to the number of ingredients used and the long hours needed. But if you break it down, it’s actually not complicated at all.
- Beef shank – the main protein. With a bit of fats in between, I find this cut of meat relatively affordable and very fork-tender after cooking. Some recipes call for browning the meat before cooking, if you would like to do that, it’s fine, just add some cooking oil to brown it. I also tried using other cuts of beef to cook this, such as beef flank which is lean but turns out not as ‘moist’ as the beef shank.
- Vegetables – only big tomatoes are used in this recipe.
- Aromatics and spices – I used only onions, garlic, ginger, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, star anise.
- Seasonings – using a mix of different Chinese sauces including soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Chinese ShaoXing wine, chilli bean sauce (dou ban jiang 豆瓣酱) and unrefined brown sugar (or you can use normal sugar too).
- To assemble the beef noodle soup, any green vegetables will do, such as bak choy, nai bai. I used pumpkin egg noodles in this recipe but you can use any kind of egg noodles, yellow noodles, even thick rice noodles will work too. A sprinkle of spring onion or parsley as garnish will complete the dish.
Tips on cooking Taiwanese beef noodle soup
Here are some tips and lessons I gathered from making the beef noodle soup:
- Other than the cooking time, the pressure cooker takes approximately 20 minutes to build pressure.
- Do not cut the beef too thin. As the meat will reduce in size after cooking, the fats will also ‘dissolve’ into the broth.
- The broth will become more aromatic after a day as the flavours will build up.
- It is optional to sieve out the cooked vegetables and spices to get a clear broth.
- The noodles will soak up the soup quite quickly, so eat the beef noodles while warm.
- Some recipes add dried chilli to the broth, but personally I find the broth quite spicy because of the chilly bean sauce.
- I will try adding some peppercorn next time I cook the beef noodles to make it more flavourful.
- Some recipes call for browning the beef and sautéing the aromatics before adding water to cook, but I find that the difference is not huge, so I just dump all the ingredients into the pressure cooker pot before cooking.
How do I store Taiwanese beef noodle soup
The beef broth builds up flavour after time. Keep the broth covered in a pot in the fridge for up to 3 days. To serve, warm it up on the stove, then cook the noodles and vegetables before assembling the dish.
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Pressure Cooker Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup (Melt-in-the-mouth) 红烧牛肉面
Equipment
Ingredients
- 800 g beef shank, or any beef suitable for stews
- 1 onion
- 2 big tomatoes
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 inch ginger
- 3 tbsp chilli bean sauce 豆瓣酱
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1.5 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 3 tbsp Chinese Shao Xing wine
- 2 tbsp demerara unrefined brown cane sugar
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 star anise
- 8 cups water
- 4 portions noodles
- 4 bunch bak choy vegetables
- 1 sprig spring onion
- 1 tsp five spice powder
Instructions
- Cut 800 g beef shank into thick chunks.
- Peel 5 cloves garlic, 1 onion, 1 inch ginger. Slice the ginger. Cut the onion and 2 big tomatoes into quarters.
- Add all ingredients into the pressure cooker – 800 g beef shank, 1 onion, 2 big tomatoes, 5 cloves garlic, 1 inch ginger, 3 tbsp chilli bean sauce 豆瓣酱, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1.5 tbsp dark soy sauce, 3 tbsp Chinese Shao Xing wine, 2 tbsp demerara unrefined brown cane sugar, 1 bay leaf, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 star anise 1 tsp five spice powder.
- Add 8 cups water.
- Set pressure to high and cook for 40 minutes. The pressure cooker will take time to build up pressure before cooking, and depressurise after cooking.
- Meat becomes fork-tender after cooking.
- Boil 4 bunch bak choy vegetables until cooked. Remove from water.
- Boil 4 portions noodles until softened. Remove from water.
- Place the noodles and vegetables in a bowl. Add the beef broth. Garnish with 1 sprig spring onion (chopped). Serve while warm.
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