Mala Beef Shank Noodles
Summer calls for downpours of sweat, but take fate into your own hands with these sweat-invoking 麻辣牛肉面, or mala beef shank noodles. This recipe calls for a long list of spices, but I promise, with whatever spices you have, you’ll have yourself a steaming bowl of melt-in-your-mouth beef shanks (and lots of sweat). Although this recipe doesn’t derive from a specific region of China, I was inspired by the mala hotpots and beef noodles from Sichuan. Tingling and soul-warming, this bowl of noodles is perfect for every season.
Ingredients:
Beef Shanks:
3 lb beef shank
190g light soy sauce
90g dark soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cardamom
2 tbsp red chili flakes
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 bay leaves
4 star anise
2 1/2 chunk rock sugar
7 dried Thai chili peppers, optional
4-5 dried orange peels
1 tsp coriander, grounded
1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorn, grounded
8-9 xiaomijiao peppers or Vietnamese chili
6 raw ginger slices
4 garlic cloves smashed
5-6 scallions
Around 650g, or 3-4 cups of stock (chicken) and water, each
Noodles:
1 lb Shandong wheat noodles or egg noodles
3 xiaomijiao or Vietnamese chili
1 stalk of scallions
Equipment:
Pressure Cooker
Steps:
In the metal pot of the pressure cooker, soak the beef shanks in water for 45 minutes to 1 hour until the water becomes bloody. Drain out the water.
Pour in both soy sauces, oyster sauce, and fish sauce. Add in cinnamon, cumin, cardamom, red chili flakes, black pepper, bay leaves, star anise, rock sugar, dried Thai chili peppers, and dried orange peels.
Using a mortar and pestle, or the back of a sauce pan, grind down on the coriander and peppercorn until broken into small flecks. Add into pot.
Slice off the top of the the xiaomijiao peppers or Vietnamese chili and slit the peppers in half. Cut a 2 inch knob of ginger into around 6 slices, and smash 4 garlic cloves with the back of a knife. Take the scallions and tie them into a bundle with a string or knotting the stalks together. Add everything into the pot.
With approximately a 1:1 ratio of broth and water, pour the liquid to submerge and cover the beef shanks completely. Be careful not to surpass the maximum volume marking on your pressure cooker pot.
Close the lid of the pressure cooker and hit the meat/fish option. If your pressure cooker doesn’t have many selections, set the timer on it for 25-30 minutes.
When the beef shanks are done cooking, take them out onto a clean cutting board and cut the meat into 2-3 inch chunks. Return the beef shank cubes back into the pressure cooker, and repeat with the meat/fish option or a timer of 25-30 minutes.
When complete, let the shanks marinate in the liquid either overnight or for at least 4 hours for maximum flavor. You can enjoy the beef shanks in any way from this way forward, but my family loves them with noodles.
To make the noodles: In boiling water, cook about 1 pound of Chinese wheat noodles or egg noodles for 4-5 minutes. When done, drain noodles out and rinse under cold water and set aside. In a sauce pan, add 3-4 heaping ladles of the spicy broth from the beef shanks, along with enough chicken stock or water to dilute the soup to your liking. Simmer the broth and add as much beef shank chunks as desired. Cook for 3-4 minutes on a simmer. Optionally, add in chopped xiaomijiao or Vietnamese chili and scallions. Bring soup to a low boil. Serve a small heap of noodles along with 2-3 ladles of the soup and beef shank!
Additional Notes:
You might not have all of these spices, which is totally okay — just add what you have! (I do realize this is a hefty list of spices as it took nearly our family’s entire pantry to complete this spice package)
My family has a pretty high tolerance for spice and love the thrill with mala spice, so the amount of peppercorns and chili peppers are to our liking. I would scale back to 1 tsp of peppercorns and 4-5 chili peppers if you want to avoid too much heat.
For the noodles, I use medium width Shandong noodles. (Here is a similar brand)