As before I happened to lay hands on beef for making soup (once more!) – so I decided (once more!) to use this beef for a basic stock, however, this time w/ lots of Asian flavors.
What to do w/ such a stock?
I used it for an Asian soup … you know: one of these bowls filled w/ vegetables, noodles & some delicacies. (My next post will show 2 more Asian soups!).
Let’s start w/ the Asian stock!
(The ingredients for the stock will be discarded – of course …)
It’s mainly the same procedure as for the basic stock …
What do we need?
There are:
- beef for making soup
- carrots & spring onions
- chives
- fresh ginger & fresh lemongrass
- dried chili peppers
- peppercorns & bay leaves & star anises & cloves
- salt & ground cumin & ground coriander.
We cut everything roughly in pieces (except the spices), put everything in a big pot & add a lot of water.
We bring it to a boil, reduce the heat to allow simmering & put on a lid.
About 3 h later we’ve got our Asian flavored stock.
We discard any solid items – only the ground spices remain.
So now we’ve got about 2 l fine basic Asian stock. We can create 5 portions à 400 ml each of which is fine for 2 servings … We can put the portions in the fridge – or even better: in the freezer for further use!
However, coming now to the „further use“: we’ll prepare an Asian soup.
What do we need for 1 (!) bowl:
- some beef
- a carrot
- some spring onions
- some thin spaghetti
- ground curry & peanut oil
- … & 200 ml of our home-made Asian stock.
We cut the beef, the carrot & the spring onions in thin sticks & save some spring onion rings for later.
Let’s cook the thin spaghetti & fry the beef & the vegetables in peanut oil w/ ground curry – don’t forget to bring the Asian stock to a boil.
The drained spaghetti will form a little mountain in out bowl. Beef & vegetables will be arranged around the spaghetti – finally we pour the hot Asian stock in the bowl & add the saved spring onion rings.
Some points:
- There’s only as much stock as necessary to cover about 90% of the bowl ingredients.
- Spiciness & hotness relays to the Asian flavored stock i. e. the spices in the stock & the amount of chili peppers you used when preparing the stock.
- You may cook the spaghetti in Asian flavored stock: in this case you’ll need more stock.
- You may substitute thin spaghetti by any other Asian type noodle: in this case follow the instruction for cooking this special type of noodles.
Enjoy – at once!
- 300 g beef for making soup
- 2 carrots
- 4-5 spring onions
- 1 bunch of chives
- 1 tbsp peppercorns
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 bay leaves
- 5-6 cm fresh ginger
- 3 star anises
- 1 tbsp cloves
- 3 dried chili peppers
- 2 stems of lemongrass
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 2500 ml water
- 50 g thin spaghetti
- 50 gr beef
- 1 carrot
- 4 spring onions
- 1 tbsp peanut oil
- 1/4 tsp curry
- 200 ml Asian stock
- Cut the beef & the vegetables roughly in pieces.
- Put everything (beef, vegetables, spices) in a big pot.
- Add water & bring it to boil.
- Reduce heat, put a lid on the pot & let it simmer for about 3 h.
- Remove the ingredients.
- Fill broth in containers (about 400 ml each).
- Put them in the fridge or freeze them – for further use.
- Cook & drain the spaghetti.
- Cut the beef & the vegetables into thin slices – save some spring onion rings for later.
- Add curry & fry them in some peanut oil until brown resp. soft.
- Heat the Asian broth.
- Heap the spaghetti in a bowl.
- Arrange beef & vegetables around the spaghetti.
- Add hot broth.
- Sprinkle spring onion rings on top.
- Serve immediately.
Cook Time for Asian soup: about 10 min Chili: You may use as many dried chili peppers as you like – the more, the hotter! Spaghetti: You may use any Chinese or Japanese noodles which happen to sit in your pantry. Cooking spaghetti: you may also cook the spaghetti in Asian broth. Be aware that you’ll need some more broth in this case. Servings: For 2 people you’ll need 400 ml Asian flavored stock i. e. 1 container. Double all the other ingredients. Asian stock may be frozen. Asian soup should be served at once & enjoyed at once!
