Sichuan Style Braised Beef with Hand Pulled Noodlea

Ingredients

  • 500 g or 1.1 lb beef chuck (choose fattier cuts)

  • 100 ml or 1/2 cup cooking rice wine

  • 10 g or 1/3 oz tomato paste

  • 10 g or 1/3 oz dark soy sauce

  • 15 g or 1/2 oz doubanjiang/chinese chili bean sauce

  • 15 g or 1/2 oz hoisin sauce

  • 5 g or 1/6 oz sichuan peppercorn

  • 5 g or 1/6 oz coriander seed

  • 1/2 cinnamon stick

  • 1 star anise

  • 1 bay leaf

  • 3 cloves

  • 3 dried chili

Method

  1. Cut the beef chuck into 2 cm (1 inch) cubes, then, place the meat in 0.7 liter (3 cups) of cold water with cooking wine over medium heat, bring it to a boil, skim off the surface foam, and rinse the meat clean. Save the hot water for later use.
  1. In a stew pot, add some oil over medium-high heat, when the oil start smoking, add in the Sicilian peppercorn, cloves, star anise, cinnamon, bay leave, coriander seed and dried chili, stir the spices until the oil become aromatic. Spoon out the spices and tie them into a muslin cloth, then add the garlic and spring onion into the same pot, lightly fry them in the oil.
  1. Add the sugar into the oil, let it brown lightly, then add the blanched beef into the pot/pan. Searing all sides of the beef, then add the dark soy sauce, Doubanjiang, Hoisin Sauce and tomato paste, stir until the beef is covered by the sauce and turn dark brown,
  1. Add the still warm beef broth into the pot with the lightly fried spice bag, bring it to a boil, cover with lid, then lower the heat to low, and let it simmer for 90 min (at least).
  1. Pick out the spice bag, raise the heat to high and condense to stew (for about 3 min) slightly for a thicker stew. Sever the stew over some lamian/pulled noodle, and sprinkle on some chopped green onion and coriander, with a splash of hot chili oil (I used homemade lamian/pull noodle).

Notes

  • The reason this recipe does’t have any salt is because all the Doubanjiang and Hoisin sauce are very salty, so don’t add any salt.

  • If you can’t find the ingredients, sichuan peppercorn, dark soy sauce, doubanjiang and oisin Sauce can be find in most Chinese/Asian market, coriander seed, cinnamon stick, star anise, bay leaf, cloves is basically five spice.

  • Replace the tomato paste with ketchup for a sweeter/more acidic taste.

References and Acknowledgments

Sichuan Style Braised Beef with Hand Pulled Noodlea