Richard Ho, the owner of Ho Foods, shares a recipe for Taiwanese-style red cook beef noodle soup. He starts by preparing the beef, boning out a foreshank and a hindshank, and then blanching them to firm up the meat. He then creates a braise using a mixture of aromatics, including ginger, garlic, and scallions, and adds doubanjiang, a fermented bean paste, to give it a funky and spicy flavor. The soup is then simmered for a couple of hours with the addition of beef stock, carrots, tomatoes, apples, and a spice bag containing cinnamon, licorice, goji berries, Sichuan peppercorns, and fennel seeds.
While the soup is simmering, Richard prepares pickled mustard greens, a common condiment in Taiwanese cuisine. He sautés the greens with Thai chili and garlic, and then adds sugar, salt, and vinegar to create a sweet and sour flavor.
Once the soup is done, Richard strains it and adds fresh noodles, which are cooked for a minute and a half. He then slices the beef into thin pieces and adds it to the noodles, along with a splash of soy sauce, white pepper, sesame oil, and black vinegar.
The dish is finished with a beef fat-based chili crisp, which adds a spicy and aromatic flavor to the soup. Richard notes that the key to a good beef noodle soup is to achieve a balance of flavors, with a combination of salty, sweet, and herbal notes. He also emphasizes the importance of texture, with a tender and chewy beef that falls apart easily.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The speaker, Richard Ho, is the owner of Ho Foods.
2. Ho Foods is a beef noodle soup shop that also serves Taiwanese breakfast.
3. Richard Ho moved to New York and couldn't find Taiwanese food, so he started making it himself.
4. Beef noodle soup is a popular dish in Taiwan, with every neighborhood having its own version.
5. The speaker uses a foreshank and a hindshank to make the beef noodle soup.
6. The meat is boned out and blanched to firm it up.
7. The speaker uses a combination of ginger, garlic, and scallions as aromatics in the dish.
8. Doubanjiang is a type of fermented soybean paste used in the recipe.
9. The speaker uses a ratio of 2:1 or 3:1 of soybean-based doubanjiang to broad bean-based doubanjiang.
10. The dish is braised for about 2 hours to develop the flavors.
11. The speaker uses a spice bag with cinnamon, licorice, goji berries, Sichuan peppercorns, and fennel seeds to add flavor to the dish.
12. The beef shanks are cooked until they are tender but still have some chew.
13. The speaker uses pickled mustard greens as a condiment for the dish.
14. The pickled mustard greens are made by salting and fermenting the greens for about a month.
15. The dish is served with fresh noodles, which take about 1-2 minutes to cook.
16. The speaker adds a little bit of soy sauce, white pepper, and sesame oil to the soup at the end.
17. The chili crisp is made with beef fat, aromatics, chilies, scallions, and cilantro.
18. The speaker thinks that the dish should have a balance of salty, sweet, and herbal flavors.