Lu Rou Fan (Stewed Pork Rice)

I'm a huge fan of Taiwanese food. This wasn't always the case though. When I was 4 years old and spent a summer in Taiwan, I begged for hamburgers, pizza and spaghetti, and there was just none to be found (this was before McDonald's made their way out there). When my mom finally found spaghetti, I refused to eat it becuase it was was basically ketchup over noodles, yuck. So what was a kid to do? I survived off of yakult yogurt drinks, sa chi ma (chinese rice krispy treats), and whatever healthy items my mom managed to force down my throat.

Now that I'm all grown up, I love Taiwanese food and just can't get enough. The best part about visiting Taiwan is the food! But since I can't just hop on a plane to enjoy all those goodies, I make it at home.

Ingredients:
- Ground pork (or fatty pork belly would be even better!)
- Shitake mushrooms
- Shallots
- Soy sauce
- Brown sugar
- Fried shallots
- Eggs (optional)

Directions:
- Rehydrate the shitake mushrooms if you're using dried. (Using hot water or popping it in the microwave for a minute will speed up the process if you're in a rush).

- Finely dice the shallots and set them aside.
- Dice the mushrooms too.
- In a heavy bottomed pot, heat up some oil.
- Add the shallots in and saute them until soft.
- Add the ground pork and some soy sauce. Brown until mostly cooked through.
- Add the mushrooms, the liquid from the mushrooms (being careful not to pour in the grit at the bottom) and enough water to barely cover everything.
- Add some fried shallots to taste.


- Add more soy sauce and brown sugar to taste.
- If you want, you can add some peeled hard boiled eggs and simmer them until brown and flavorful for soy sauce eggs.


- Simmer until the flavors have come together and serve it over rice (garnishing it with more fried shallots if desired).

Niu Rou Mien (Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup)

Now that you have amazing handmade noodles, you need something equally amazing to eat those noodles with, right? Enter one of my all time favorites - Niu Rou Mien aka Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup. I love this stuff. One of my coworkers makes us go to the same exact place EVERY week and orders this dish so that he can get his weekly fix, and I more than happily oblige.

Usually, this dish is served with a nice thick layer of spicy red oil on top of the broth, but alas, when I'm cooking at home, I can't bring myself to knowingly eat it that way, so I refrigerate the broth overnight and skim off the solidified fat. It's still yummy, but if you chose not to skim off the fat, it'll only make it better.

Additionally, making a batch of Niu Rou Mien is the perfect opportunity to impart some of these great flavors into a few other otherwise ingredients. Personally, I really like the flavor of carrots that have been stewed in the broth, so I always toss a few of those in. I adore soy sauce eggs and this broth is perfect for making them, so I always make sure to cook up a batch of those too whenever I'm making this dish. Other things typical items that you can toss in there are dou gan (bean curd - kinda like a super firm tofu) and seaweed.

I'm submitting this post to Pasta Presto Nights. Patsy of Family Friends & Food is hosting this week, so check out her blog on May 15th to see everyone else's pasta creations!

Now onto the second most important part - how to make this dish. (The most important part is actually eating it)

Ingredients:
- Handmade noodles (recipe here)
- Beef (traditionally beef shank, but any stew meat will do. I used chuck this time)
- Beef Tendon (totally optional. some people like it, some don't)
- Water or Beef or Chicken or Vegetable Stock
- Soy sauce (to taste)
- Brown sugar (to taste)
- 1-2 sprigs of Green onions
- 3-4 cloves of Garlic
- 3-5 slices of Ginger
- 3-5 Star anise
- Dried chili peppers (to taste)
- Sichuan peppercorns (to taste)
Optional additions that I used:
- Carrots
- Peeled hard-boiled eggs

Directions:
- Put the meat, tendon and carrots if you're using them, ginger, garlic, scallions, spices, etc (basically everything but the eggs) in a pressure cooker or heavy bottomed pot. If you're not using a pressure cooker, go ahead and stick the eggs too. If you are, I don't imagine pressure cooked eggs to be a pretty sight (though I've never tried it), so leave those out for now.
- Fill the pot with the liquid of your choice until the meat is barely covered.
- Add soy sauce and brown sugar to taste. You can always water down the broth later if you add too much, or add more if it's too bland.
- Bring everything to a boil. If you're using a pressure cooker, let it cook at maximum pressure for about 20-30 minutes and let the pressure come down naturally, or until the meat is fall apart tender. If you're using a pot, either simmer it on the stovetop or put it into a 350 degree oven for a few hours until the meat is fall apart tender.
- Take out everything but the spices, ginger, scallion and garlic and set it aside.
- Strain the broth. If you used a pressure cooker and want to make soy sauce eggs, put the eggs in and let it simmer for at least an hour (the longer the better though) so that the color and flavor penetrates the egg.
- If you want, refrigerate the broth overnight to remove the layer of fat on top.
- Now it's time to serve! In a bowl, put some noodles, a bit of the broth (and some water if it's too salty), and a few slices of the beef. Garnish it with some bok choy, carrots, soy sauce egg, pickled cabbage, green onions, parsley, etc.
- Slurp and enjoy!

Homemade Noodles

I love nice thick chewy noodles and the texture that can only come from fresh noodles, not dried. Since it's sometimes hard to find them at stores, I decided to make them myself. The only problem is that even though it's easy, it makes a big mess, so if I'm going to the trouble of making them, I like to make extra and freeze them. I floured them heavily and froze them in individually sized portions. Unfortunately, they stuck together even though I dusted them with a ton of flour. If you have a suggestion on on how store/freeze them, please let me know!


Ingredients:
- 2 parts Flour
- 1 part Ice Water
- lots of extra Flour to keep things from sticking

Directions:
- Mix the water and flour together and knead until it forms a nice smooth dough, adding more flour as needed for dusting the work surface and your hands.
- Let the dough rest for at least 10 minutes.
- Roll the dough out into sheets about 1/8 of an inch thick. If you're having trouble rolling it out, let it rest longer.
- Flour the sheet heavily and roll it loosely.
- Cut the rolls into strips of your desired thickness. Personally, I like them about half an inch wide.
- Carefully unroll the cut strips and lay them out, heavily floured so that they don't stick.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
- Put the noodles into the water for just a few minutes until the noodles are cooked through.
- Drain the noodles and put them into the broth of your choice or toss them with olive oil or sesame oil for use at a later time.