Recipe: Beef and Noodle Soup

  Recipe Source: Cramer, Marc.  Imperial Mongolian Cooking.  Hippocrene Books, New York, 2001 p. 34. 

Winter is a time for soup, but soup doesn't have to be heavy.  This soup, which serves ten if served as the Soup Course, is actually amazingly light.  It is also very yellow - so yellow that I should have submitted it to the Food in Colors event!  Apparently it is often served as a breakfast in Mongolia, at least according to Mr. Cramer.  In Mongolia (again, according to the author) this would be made with lamb, which I would have preferred.  In Tibet, it would be made with yak meat, which I have yet to find for sale in the metropolitan Boston area. 

I made a few changes to the recipe.  I used olive oil instead of "vegetable oil."  I increased the amount of garlic.  I added some minced ginger to the powdered ginger called for in the recipe.  I increased both the cumin and turmeric.  I didn't have egg noodles on hand, so I substituted rice noodles, which I sauteed in hot pepper sesame oil.  Finally, rather than thinly slicing the tomatoes, I used small tomatoes that I chopped into halves or quarters. 

I genuinely liked this soup.  I didn't like the texture of the meat.  I think that the meat would be better sliced as thinly as possible and added later in the recipe.  I suppose that would make it more like a pho, but I like pho.  I think it would also be just fine without the meat, and in fact froze the leftovers in just such a fashion. 

Beef and Noodle Soup (serves 10; approx. $1.35/serving)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

6 tablespoons minced jarred garlic

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 pound lean beef stewing meat

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

7 cups water

1 small package rice noodles

1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced

1 onion, thinly sliced

1/3 package of Campari tomatoes, quartered.

1 tablespoon hot pepper sesame oil

Equipment:

• Large saucepan
• Bowl
• Strainer
• Wok

1. Heat the olive oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the fenugreek seeds.  Stir until they turn brown.
3. Add the garlic and ginger.  Saute until just fragrant.
4. Add the meat, cumin and turmeric.  Saute until the meat is browned.
5. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes.
6. Add the water, cover and cook another 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, reconstitute the noodles in the bowl with hot water.
8. Drain the noodles. 
9. Heat the sesame oil in the wok. 
10. Add the noodles and saute 2 - 3 minutes.
11. Add the onions, scallions and tomatoes to the serving vessel.
12. Add the noodles.
13. Add the broth with meat to the serving vessel and serve. 

Comments

[Peter]

I do like the look and sound of this soup...if Ghengis Khan ate...I'll eat it!

[Dragon]

Light and tasty. Yum!

[Laura @ Hungry and Frozen]

Ooh this looks delicious. I love the sound of all those spices. I always increase the amount of garlic in whatever I'm cooking by the way :)

[Fearless Kitchen]

Peter - I'm pretty sure that the Original G didn't have this with tomatoes, but thanks.

Dragon - Thanks! It was really light. I ate the frozen, meatless leftovers as a snack last night and they still worked pretty well.

Laura - Thanks! I'm glad I'm not the only one. Cookbooks and magazines - "established" recipe publishers I guess - always seem to be afraid of garlic. I'm not sure why.

[Teresa]

Question: Is there another name for the soup serving vessel? (ie. terraine or something like that)

[Fearless Kitchen]

Teresa - You can use a tureen if you want. I picked up a bunch of big serving bowls with lids from the local Asian market - they take up less space than the tureen.