Tag Archives: main dish

Easy Asian Beef & Noodle Soup

One more recipe before I unleash the first of the Regency ball pictures–and it’s a good one. Drawing from my usual resource, this recipe is a fantastic little find. Inspired by Vietnamese Pho, this brothy soup is chock full of tasty tidbits, and the little bit of sriracha stirred in at the end is absolutely essential in taking it from a basic broth flavor to something satisfyingly complex and interesting. Picking out the pieces of steak, bok choy and mushrooms with a pair of chopsticks is (dare I say) really fun, and I will definitely be coming back to this soup. Thanks Mary Helen for creating such a great recipe!

It makes 4 generous servings, but could be stretched to 5, especially with extra noodles.

Let’s get down with our inner Asian side.

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

14 oz thin rice noodles

6 cups beef stock

3 TBS dark soy sauce

1 tsp grated ginger

3 TBS peanut oil

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

4 cloves garlic

1 large white onion, minced

3 baby bok choy, chopped

1 lb NY strip steak, sliced thinly

1 bunch scallions

1 TBS sesame oil

1/3 cup shredded basil

2-4 tsp sriracha, to taste

1 tsp chicken bouillon, to taste

1 pinch salt and pepper, to taste

Any thin noodle would work, but I used these. They had been hanging out in my fridge for a few months and it was time to put them to good use.

Cook the noodles according to the package directions. My fresh noodles just needed a couple minutes in hot water.

Drain them and set them aside.

Here are the rest of ingredients that will be appearing on scene today:

Give the ginger a rough grate–a microplane zester works wonders in a situation like this.

In a large pot, combine the beef stock, ginger, and soy sauce . . .

. . . and bring it to a simmer.

In the meantime, give the onion a nice mince.

Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet and brown half of the onion, the garlic, and the mushrooms. Give the mushrooms a nice go-’round with some salt and pepper.

Within a few minutes, they will become brown and beautiful.

Add them to the soup–but only after sneaking a taste!

While the mushrooms were sizzlin’, I gave the bok choy a rough chop.

Bok choy is such a beautiful vegetable–the slices look like flowers, don’t you think?

Brown the rest of the onion and the bok choy with a little more oil if necessary . . .

. . . and then add them to the soup as well.

Slice the steak thinly and on the diagonal.

I was a little concerned with the amount of fat in the steak, but it turned the pieces into melt-in-your-mouth morsels of glory.

Add the strips to the soup.

Thank you, New York Strip. Thank you, cow. Thank you, marbling.

The meat should cook within a couple minutes; stir in the sriracha to taste.

Don’t fear the sriracha! It will add a lovely depth, so please don’t skip it–you can adjust to your spiciness level, but the flavor it adds is not to be missed.

Plus, if you skip the sriracha I might start hyperventilating, and no one wants that.

Now this is very important: taste!!

Add the chicken bouillon if you need a little more flavor (I did), and sriracha if you want a little more oomph.

Give the scallions a quick chop.

And do a quick mince on the basil.

Stir in the scallions and sesame oil . . .

. . . add the basil, and salt and pepper to taste.

Lovely! Give it another taste just to double check the seasoning. If you underseason the soup it will be very ‘meh.’ If it’s tasting thin, that can easily be changed with more sriracha and/or chicken or beef bouillon. Yes, I know I’m beating a dead horse–but seasoning things correctly (correctly = to your taste) is a powerful thing. It has transformational magic.

Divide the noodles into bowls and pour the hot soup over them.

Serve with both chopsticks and a soup spoon.

Enjoy!

It may splatter some as you scoop the noodles out of the liquid, so diners beware!

Am I allowed to just fish for the pieces of New York strip and eat them? All? One by one?

No? Next time I might add 8 lbs of steak instead of just 1 lb. Everybody to the limit.

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Roasted Red Pepper Couscous with Avocado and Mozzarella

I am so pleased with this simple little recipe, a variation on this original (once again identified in my TastyKitchen perusings). It’s full of flavor. It’s simple and quick. I know I’ll be coming back to it for weeknight meals.

A few things: the avocado and mozzarella are not just garnishes; they are 100% necessary to the dish. Since I used jarred roasted red peppers (my grocery store was out of fresh ones–I wonder if Mardi Gras had something to do with that), the acidity level of the couscous with the sauce would have been too high for me to enjoy it by itself. However, once the avocado and mozzarella were stirred in, everything became balanced and beautiful, and I sighed with pleasure. I used a pinch of sugar to counteract the acidity, but if you roast your own peppers you can probably get by without.

This could work as a fun side dish to fish or chicken, or you can top it off with an egg or two and call it a meal! That’s what we did, and what we will be doing again.

Ingredients

(Serves 2)

1 cup dry Israeli couscous
3 roasted red peppers
2 cloves garlic
1 TBS sherry or white wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 TBS olive oil
1 pinch sugar, optional (especially if using jarred peppers)
1 whole avocado
1 sprinkling lemon juice
1 cup torn fresh mozzarella or bocconcini
4 fried or hard boiled eggs (optional, to make this into a full meal)

If you’ve never made Israeli couscous, you’re in for a treat. They grains are much larger than ‘regular’ couscous, and have a delightful chew to them when cooked al dente.

I think what I used may be whole wheat, but I bought it so long ago that I can’t remember.

Anyway, Israeli couscous cooks just like pasta, so let’s start off by boiling some water.

When it comes to a boil, add the couscous and cook it for about 7 minutes, until it’s al dente.

All of a sudden I’m looking at that picture and thinking “rabbit food pellets.” Ew. Try not to think that–banish it from your mind! This is not pet food. This is not pet food. Or pet, um droppings.

When it’s done, drain the couscous and pour it back into the pot.

In the meantime, grab ye the remaining ingredients.

Toss the roasted red peppers in a blender.

Examine it from a few different angles, just for the heck of it.

Toss in the peeled garlic cloves, salt and pepper . . .

. . . and the vinegar and olive oil too.

Press blend. It just needs about a minute in there, and you can stop as soon as it’s starting to get smooth. I think that leaving a little texture is quite desirable.

Also, please use a top on your blender. Don’t be like me and have a nearly explosive disaster only averted by the quick placement of the palm of your hand.

Very important step: taste the sauce and if there’s too much acidity, adjust with a pinch of sugar. The acidity will be greater if you use jarred red peppers; roasting your own will probably make the addition of sugar unnecessary. And am I ever glad that further testing is required! I love further testing.

With the heat on medium, add the sauce to the couscous and cook for about 5 minutes.

I love that fiery sunset orange color.

It will start off looking a little soupy, so cook it until the couscous passes the ‘drag’ test (when you drag a spatula across the bottom of the pot, the area doesn’t immediately fill with liquid).

Taste again and adjust the seasoning.

Cut the avocado into slivers, and sprinkle them with lemon juice to prevent browning.

Tear up some fresh mozzarella pieces, or simply use halved bocconcini. Lightly salt both the avocado and the cheese.

Some day I need to sing a canticle in honor of avocado. Words just can’t express my love.

Stir the avocado and mozzarella into the couscous, and serve!

I can’t emphasize enough how necessary the avocado and mozzarella are to this dish. Please believe me. They turn it from ‘meh’ into ‘mwahhahahaaa!!!’

You can make a pretty arrangement with it, but unless there’s a camera involved, it’s probably not worth it. Here’s how it really looks once you start chowing down:

Divine!

If you want to make it into a full meal, top it off with 4 hardboiled or fried eggs (2 per person). That is the absolute best way to eat it.

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