Any fellow scifi fans remember the quote in my title?  Haha, that also made me think of the Shokugeki No Soma (Food Wars) episode where they had to use spices to make their own curry.  Ok, so my spice usage level is probably still at a beginner/intermediate level, but, they make my stomach happy, and that is a large part of MY universe.

My apologies for being MIA on my blog for a while.  Over the Christmas holiday, I got caught up with playing a new Mario and Zelda game.  I finally beat those games, and I was ready to go back into my regular routine and actually get shit done and be productive.  But my husband…THAT guy…  He built himself a new computer recently, so he passed on his old computer to me.   He also recently started playing Final Fantasy XIV again after a 3 year hiatus.  I used to play too, but I stopped shortly after I started.  He kept bugging me to play again, since I now have a computer capable of playing it, thanks to him.  Sooo, I’ve been sucked back into the world of gaming, and obviously it is all his fault.  Once again, I have a long backlog of photos and ideas for this blog…but I’ve been a little busy leveling up.  And my husband hasn’t even played WITH me.  We sit NEXT to each other, but his character is more than 20 levels higher than mine.  Ugh.

But on a more productive and healthy note, we both recently started an athlete training class at a local gym.  It’s similar to CrossFit, and it is kicking my ass.  The first time I went, I kid you not, I puked during my work out.  At least I made it to the bathroom.  But, my body has gotten so weak, stiff, and flabby since I had my daughter, and it is really weighing me down, mentally, and physically.  So even though I really dislike exercising, I will give it my all, since it is necessary for my well-being.

So back to the main point of this post.

When you ask a Chinese person about favorite comfort foods, one response will likely be niu rou mien, or beef noodle soup.  There are so many kinds of beef noodle soup.  Even within one restaurant, there may be several kinds on the menu.  They may have a clear and light soup, a spicy and heavier soup, soup with just beef chunks, soup with tendon and beef, etc.  There will likely be a selection of different noodles too, like thick and chewy, thin, hand pulled, etc.

I don’t live very close to any good Chinese restaurants that serve beef noodle soup, so I wanted to try making my own.  Since I am lazy and don’t always make it to the nearest Asian grocery store, I wanted to make a soup out of ingredients found at mainstream grocery stores.  However, the spices and sauces I used were all previously bought online, or from Asian stores, so I don’t know if you’ll be able to find everything at regular stores.  The recipe below is for my take on spicy niu rou tang, or beef soup.  It is a rich, hearty, and slightly spicy beef soup.  I did not add noodles since we are on a low carb lifestyle (sniff sniff), hence niu rou tang, instead of niu rou mien.  But, if you are not watching your carbs, Chinese beef soup is delicious with noodles and rice.

I got 4-5 lbs of beef short rib.  I patted them dry, then rubbed a five-spice blend all over the meat.  I’ve used chuck before, and it tasted great and was a lot cheaper, but I prefer the fattiness, taste, and texture of short ribs.  If I’m going to comfort myself with food, and can’t include noodles or rice, then damn it, I’m going to splurge on the meat.

This is part of the backbone of my soup.  I have bay leaves, black peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, star anise, Thai chili pepper, and Szechuan peppercorns.  I went easy on the spicy components since my household is not into painful, numbing, and ulcer forming spicy foods.  There is a kick to my soup, but it’s more of a warm feeling and maybe drippy nose spicy level.

I wrapped the spices in a bit of cheesecloth for easy retrieval.

Here is another part of the backbone of my soup.  I roughly chopped up some green onion, ginger, shallot, and peeled some garlic.

This messy bowl of mystery liquid is the last part of the soup’s backbone.  It’s a mixture of soy sauce, chili oil with black bean sauce, rice wine, chili crisp sauce, sesame oil, and sugar.  Again, I went easy on the spicy sauces, but if you like your mouth, throat, and stomach to be on fire, then knock yourself out.

For the vegetable part, I chopped up mushrooms, onion, and carrots.  If you get a beef noodle soup at a restaurant, it will likely only come with a few pieces of leafy greens.  The focus is on the beef soup and noodles.  But, I wanted to make my soup heartier and more nutritious, so I added a lot more vegetables.

I first browned the beef short ribs in bacon fat, because… bacon fat.  It took a few minutes to brown each side.

After the beef browned, I added the soy sauce mixture, a quart of beef stock and enough water to cover the beef.  I also added the pouch of spices, and the other aromatics.  Let it come to a boil, then I turned the heat to low, covered the pot and let it simmer for about 2 hours.

After about 2 hours, I skimmed off the oily scummy stuff floating on top.  Then I added the vegetables and covered the pot again.  I let it cook for another hour or so, until the beef was super tender.

This is my giant bowl of comfort.  I garnished my bowl with some green onion and cilantro.

Chinese Beef Soup

Ingredients
– 4-5 lbs beef short rib
– five-spice powder blend
– 1 lb of carrots (about 6 carrots)
– 1 onion
– 1 large family pack of mushrooms
– 1 shallot
– 1 bunch of green onion
– about 3 inches of ginger
– 1 head of garlic
– 1 Thai chili
– 3 bay leaves
– 1/2 tsp whole Szechuan peppercorns 
– 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
– 3 star anise
– 2 cinnamon sticks
– 1/2 c of soy sauce
– 2 tbs chili oil with black bean sauce
– 2 tbs rice wine
– 1 tbs chili crisp sauce
– 2 tbs sesame oil
– 3 tbs sugar
– 1 quart of beef stock

Directions
– Tie the cinnamon sticks, star anise, black peppercorns, Szechuan peppercorns, bay leaves, and Thai chili in cheesecloth.
– Reserve some of the green part of the green onion for garnish.  Roughly chop the rest of the green onion, ginger, and shallot up.  Peel and leave the garlic cloves whole.
– Chop the mushrooms, onion, and carrots into big bite size chunks.
– Mix the soy sauce, chili oil with black bean sauce, rice wine, chili crisp sauce, sesame oil, and sugar in a bowl.
– Pat the beef dry and rub a five-spice powder blend all over the meat.  Brown each side of the meat in a heavy pot.
– Once the beef is browned, add the beef stock, soy sauce mixture, spice bag, and aromatics.  Pour enough water to cover the beef up.  Bring it all to a boil, then turn the heat to low, cover the pot, and let it gently simmer for about 2 hours.
– Skim off any oily scum floating at the top of the pot.  Add the vegetables, cover the pot, and let it gently cook for another hour, or until the beef is super tender.
– Garnish the soup with green onion and cilantro.  
– To make my Chinese comfort food dreams come true, cook some Asian style thick noodles to add to the soup!