Hong Shao Niu Rou Mian

Ingredients

• beef (1 pound shank, 2-3 pounds cubed chuck or brisket, and just about any other cut of beef you can get your hands on)

• 7 slices of skinned ginger

• beef bones (anywhere from 1/2 to 3 pounds) 

• 2 tbsp of vegetable oil

• 3 hot chilis

• Generous handful of Sichuan peppercorns (OG recipe recommends green ones) 

• 1.5 tbsp of sugar

• 4 cloves of crushed garlic

• 4-5 shoots of spring onions

• 1/2 of medium size onion (cut into chunks)

• 3 cinnamon sticks

• 6 bay leaves

• 6 pieces of star anise

• 1 dried orange peel (fresh peel also works)

• 1.5 tbsp of Sichuan DouBanJiang (Fly By Jing sells a 3 year aged one, made in Pixian, and is notoriously the most flavorful you can buy) 

• 1 tbsp of tomato paste

• ⁠4 tbsp of Shao Xing wine

• 1.5 tbsp of soy sauce

• 1 tsp of dark soy sauce

• Salt

• Salty roasted peanuts 

• Big bunch of fresh cilantro 

• Pickled mustard greens (if you can find them at your local Asian grocer) 

• A few heads of baby bok choy (I like veggie heavy soups so I like to get a whole pound and overfill my bowls with veg)

• Noodles: a few brands from my local H-mart that I’ve loved would be “Gourmet Master Taiwan’s fresh Oriental Linguine” and “Sanukiya’s frozen udon noodles”

Directions

1. Do a quick blanch to remove any impurity from the beef. Prepare a pot of cold water. Add your beef in along with a few slices of ginger and 2 tbsp of Shao Xing wine and turn the stove to high heat. Allow to come to a boil and let roll for 5 minutes, remove the beef and discard the water+boiled ginger. Wash the beef with cool running water to get rid of the blood scum. Drain it and dry it completely.

2. Meanwhile, cut up 2-3 dried chilies with scissors and soak, seeds and all, in cold water for 30 minutes. Pour through a fine strainer and discard water 

3. ⁠Heat up a large pot on medium to high heat and add some oil. Put your dried chili’s in and stir around for a minute, then add Sichuan peppercorns and stir until fragrant. Then put your well dried beef into the pot. Apply a generous fist full of salt over the beef and adjust the pieces so they all touch the bottom of the pot, and allow the beef to brown, rotating a few times to get all sides. Once beef is browned turn the heat to low and push the beef to the side, or remove from pot entirely if the pot isn’t large enough (but be sure to leave some beef juice in the pot) 

4. Add 1.5 tbsp of sugar and stir until it turns into a caramel color. Stir the beef around so the caramelized sugar coats the meat, turn the heat back up to medium high, and add our aromatics and dried spices:

   4 slices of ginger, 4 cloves of crushed garlic, 4 white parts of spring onion, 1/2 of medium size onion that I cut into chunks, 1 stalk of cinnamon, 2 pieces of bay leaves, 2 pieces of star anise, 2 pieces of dried orange peel, 1.5 tbsp of Sichuan dou ban jiang, 1 tbsp of tomato paste

5. Mix everything together until fragrant, then turn the heat down to medium low and add the rest of the sauces:

   1.5 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp of dark soy sauce, 2 tbsp of shao xing wine

6. Allow to cook together for a minute then fill the pot with cold water. Don’t forget  to scrape the bottom of the pot for all those flavors. The water should be an inch or 2 over all your ingredients, then turn up the heat and bring this to a boil, skimming white foam as needed 

7. Once the pot is nice and bubbling, you can give it a taste to adjust the saltiness. I add a good amount of salt here cause I love me some salty broth. Mix it and turn the heat to low. Simmer it for more than 3 hours

   [MORE THAN 3 HOURS LATER]

8. The broth should look incredibly flavorful and the beef should be super tender. Use a strainer/holey spoon and scoop out the beef onto a cutting board and chop into small chopstick friendly cubes 

9. Bring a fresh pot of water to a boil, cook noodles and bok choy, strain and portion noodles into bowls. Place a few pieces of beef and blanched baby bok choy over the noodles, then pour the hot broth over each bowl. Top with a lot of salty roasted peanuts, and a huge handful of fresh roughly chopped cilantro