During winter, sometimes you just want something warm and comforting that doesn’t require spending a ton of time standing in the kitchen (with sometimes icy tiles).
I love noodles and I love beef bourguignon, so why not make a sort of Asian hybrid with Chinese inspiration?
Making the pulled beef noodles
We start by making an Asian pulled beef with ingredients such as Shaoxing wine or dark soy sauce.
All of this will simmer in broth (ideally homemade) for some time until it’s tender enough to shred at the slightest touch of a fork. Appetizing, isn’t it?
It’s important to remove the beef from the pot into a separate bowl to shred it. Why? Because we want to concentrate all the remaining juice as much as possible to achieve an intense flavor.
As the recipe doesn’t have many components, it’s important to enhance each ingredient. And the ultra-flavorful sauce is an integral part of the dish
After these steps, we have a classic stir-fry where we add sesame oil for its aroma, onions, garlic if you like, or even MSG.
Quick tip: after cooking the noodles for stir-frying, immediately rinse them in cold water to stop the cooking process. This also firms them up, making them perfect for stir-frying
Ingredients for pulled beef noodles
As usual, in this section I’ll explain a bit about the why and how of the ingredients used in the recipe
The beef: Here, it’s better to use stewing beef, beef for carbonnade, or beef for bourguignon. Don’t waste a prime cut for this recipe
Shaoxing wine: Can be replaced with sherry but it really adds something extra, so don’t hesitate to invest if you haven’t already. The Amazon link is in the recipe.
Dark soy sauce: Not to be confused with light soy sauce, it can be found in all Asian shops and sometimes in supermarkets, but that’s rare.
Ingredients
Shredded beef
- 400 g of beef (carbonnade style)
- 6 tablespoons of Shaoxing wine
- 3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 1 pinch of salt
- 4 crushed garlic cloves
- 250 ml of chicken broth (add water to almost completely cover the beef)
Noodles
- 400 g of cooked noodles
- 2 sliced onions
- 3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 1 pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons of sesame oil
Procédé
- Put all the beef ingredients in a covered pot, cover and simmer for 1 hour over medium heat or until the beef shreds
- Remove the beef, shred it with a fork and let the sauce reduce for 5 minutes over high heat
- Remove from heat and mix the beef back in
- In a wok with a little oil, stir-fry the onions over high heat for 3 minutes
- Add the noodles and mix, add the dark soy sauce, sesame oil and salt
- Add the shredded beef mixture and mix
