Taiwanese Braised Beef Soup

• 1 kg beef shin
• 1 piece of beef leg bone (ask your butcher for this, or you can replace both the shin and this separate bone with 1.5Kg beef short rib)
• 1 pack of udon noodles / long wheat noodles
• 1-2 stalks of pak choi
• 50g Coriander
• 1 pack of pickled mustard greens (ya cai, optional)

SOUP BASE INGREDIENTS

• 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion
• 1 large tomato
• 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
• 5-6 cloves garlic
• 3 spring onions
• 5-6 dried red chilies

THE SOUP FLAVOUR

• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp chilli bean paste (douban jiang)
• 100ml soy sauce
• 100ml Shaoxing rice wine
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2-3L chicken stock / boiling water
• 1 Chinese mixed spice packed (or tie 2 handfuls of the following selection of spices into a muslin cloth: Sichuan peppercorns, 3-4 cinnamon sticks, 5 cardamom pods, 8-star anise, 6-7 cloves, 10 pieces dried mandarin peel, 5-6 bay leaves, handful of whole white and black peppercorns, 2-3 tbsp liquorice slices, 2 nutmeg, and 2 tbsp fennel seeds)

THE SPRING ONION OIL

• 3 Spring onions
• ½ thumb-sized piece of ginger
• ½ tsp salt
• 2-3 tbsp vegetable oil

• Firstly, slice the beef into large dices and blanch the beef and bone in boiling water. Keep on a rolling boil for 5-6 minutes to remove any scum. Pour through a sieve and then run cold water over the beef to remove any excess scum from around the pieces of beef.

• Now roughly chop the onion and tomato, keeping the skin on both and then peel and bash your garlic and ginger with your knife and roughly chop the spring onion. Soak the dried red chillies in hot water for 10 minutes.