Braised Beef Brisket and Daikon In Rice Noodle Soup With Baby Bok Choy

I am officially obsessed with beef brisket. We've had it at least once every week for almost a month. What can I say? I heart beef brisket! I love eating beef brisket at Chinese restaurants and I've always wanted to learn how to make it and now that I know how amazingly easy it is, I don't think I'll order it in a restaurant again. One note about the cut labelled beef brisket - I've talked to a few people and it seems that at the supermarkets, the cut labelled beef brisket is different from the one that Chinese markets label beef brisket as. Whenever making a Chinese recipe that calls for beef brisket, always make sure that you are buying a Chinese labelled beef brisket. I cooked mine the night before so that the fat would harden on top and I could scoop it out for the fat nazi (that means you Tombee!) but there wasn't a lot so you could skip this step. The daikon added a natural sweetness to the sauce that was heavenly. I could eat just the sauce by itself on rice, it's that delicious!





Braised Beef Brisket and Daikon In Rice Noodle Soup With Baby Bok Choy

Ingredients
Beef brisket braised in chee hou sauce (recipe follows)
Rice noodles
Chicken or veggie broth
Baby bok choy

Directions
1. Bring a pot of water to boil and add noodles. When noodles are almost done cooking, add baby bok choy and cook until noodles are soft but still slightly chewy and bok choy is cooked but still crisp. Drain and rinse with cold water.
2. Bring broth to a boil. Add a tablespoon or two of salt or soy sauce. You want the broth to be on the slightly salty side as the noodles have no taste of their own.
3. Place noodles and bok choy in a bowl and ladle hot broth into bowl. Top noodles with as much beef brisket as you would like and hide the leftovers and say you ate it all when your boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband/dog asks you for more.

If you don't want to bother with the soup, after cooking the noodles, ladle beef brisket with mountains of sauce onto the noodles and you will have dry braised saucy noodles (which I prefer) instead of soup noodles.



Braised Beef Brisket in Chee Hou Sauce from Christine's Recipes

Ingredients
1 kg beef brisket, cut into chunks
1 daikon, peeled and cut into 2" chunks
1 tablespoon oil
3 slices ginger
3 star anises
2 tablespoons Lee Kum Kee Chu Hou paste
1 tablespoon madras curry powder
a small piece of rock sugar
1 green onion (garnish)

Seasoning
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon corn flour
2 tablespoons water

Directions
1. Bring a pot of water to boil and blanch beef brisket cubes for 3 minutes. Remove and drain.
2.. Heat oil in pan and sauté ginger and Chee Hou paste until fragrant. Add beef brisket chunks and stir well to coat.
3. Add star anise and a bit of rock sugar. Add enough water to cover all ingredients and bring to a boil.
4. Transfer mixture to a slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours. After 4 hours, add daikon chunks and cover and cook for another 2 hours.
5. By this time the beef should be fall apart tender. Mix seasoning ingredients together and add to beef. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.

If you don't have a slow cooker, leave beef in pan after it has come to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer for two to two and a half hours until the beef is tender, then add daikon and cook for another half an hour. Serve with rice noodles.