When cooking Indonesian food, using spices are almost unavoidable. They are part of the cooking in most dishes. Actually, almost the case in most Southeast Asian cooking. You will often see turmeric, cardamom, candlenuts (kemiri), galangal, etc. Sometimes, I do feel lazy to fix certain dish because of the amount of spices required in the recipe. Over the years of learning how to cook at home, I finally decided to get the spices and ground them up, store in smaller batches, and freeze them. Whenever I need certain spices, I have them 🙂 Of course you can always use spice powder too. It’s just that certain spices are nice when they are fresh and not all of them are available in powder too.
This sweet and spicy noodle was made impromptu and it turned out really good. My husband described it as “The best” I’m not sure the best compares to what, but you don’t ask question and just accept the complement. This is a very simple noodle that really satisfied the crave for “something tastes familiar”.
SWEET AND SPICY BEEF NOODLE
Ingredients
- 1 lb spaghetti noodles
- 4 cups beef broth
- 1 ½ lbs beef for stew thinly sliced
- 2 Tbsp sweet soy sauce
- 2 Roma tomato quartered
- 2 stalks of spring onion finely chopped
- 3 Tbsp Canola oil
- ½ cup of ground red chili paste
- 6 shallots peeled and thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic finely minced
- 2 cups of mung bean sprouts blanch briefly in hot water
- Salt and white pepper powder to taste
- 1 Tbsp red pepper flakes
Spices:
- 2 tsp of turmeric powder
- 3 pcs of cardamom pods
- ¼ tsp of cumin powder
Instructions
- Cook the noodles as directed on the package and toss with a bit oil and set aside.Heat up oil in a wok. Add in red chili paste, shallots, garlic, and spices and saute until they are really fragrant, about 5 minutes
- Add in the meat and continue to saute until they turn color. Add in beef broth, sweet soy sauce, tomatoes, and lower the heat and let it simmer until the meat is cooked through and tender, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Have a taste and season with some salt. The broth should be spicy and lightly sweet. Add a bit sugar if needed
When ready to serve:
- Bring the soup back to a rolling boil. Portion the cooked noodles, mung bean sprouts into serving bowl and ladle the meat and hot broth over the noodles. Garnish with spring onion and red pepper flakes, and serve immediately
