Braised Beef & Tendons with Egg Noodles

My original plan was to try making Vietnamese beef pho, which was October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge, again. This time with more spices as I felt that something was missing the last time.But...

this happened.

I dreamnt about the frozen beef tendons in the freezer while my stock was chilling in the fridge overnight. No kidding. Food is always on my mind and I am sure that's what all food bloggers are experiencing (I hope). So the next day I decided to braise beef and tendons instead. It was easy enough to adapt, I just had to reduce the sauce and flavour it with some Chu Hou sauce. The wild boar was a little shocked as he was expecting a clear noodle soup but instead he got something thick, gooey and gelatinous. It was super duper tasty, so delicious with chili oil! I'm hungry now just thinking of it. The wild boar complained that it was too gooey as he hates tendons. He actually picked out all the tendons and gave them to me! Oh well...more for me, YAY!

Ingredients:

• 450g beef - cut into large chunks
• 450 beef tendons - cut into bite size pieces

For stock:

• 1.6kg beef bones
• 1.5L water
• 3 cardamon pods
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 10 cloves
• 5 star anise
• 1 tbs fennel seeds
• 1 tbs coriander seeds
• 2 onions - with skin on, washed, dried, halved
• 4 slices ginger (each about 4 inches in length)

Seasonings:

• 1 1/2 tbs fish sauce
• 50 g rock sugar
• 2 tbs Chu Hou sauce

For egg noodles:

• Fresh egg noodles
• Sesame oil
• White pepper powder

Directions:

The day before:

For stock: (refer to Vietnamese beef pho post for detailed instructions.)

• Blanch bones to get rid of scum.
• Broil onion, ginger in the oven until charred.
• Toast spices on a pan until fragrant.
• Place all ingredients for stock in a pot and cook under pressure for 1 1/2 hours.
• Leave to cool.
• Strain stock and refrigerate overnight.

The next day:

• Discard the layer of solid fats.
• Reheat stock in a pot, add beef, tendon, rock sugar and Chu Hou sauce. Cook under pressure for 45 mins.
• Remove pressure cooker lid, leave to simmer until liquid thickened.
• Add fish sauce to taste.
• Serve with egg noodles, not to forget some chili oil!

For egg noodles:

• Place noodles in a pot of hot water to loosen up the noodles.
• Drain.
• Toss with some sesame oil and white pepper.