Beef Noodle Siup in Instant Pot

This comforting Taiwanese beef noodle soup features a rich and flavorful broth, tender beef shank, chewy tendon, fresh bok choy, and tangy preserved mustard greens.

When I'm craving beef noodle soup with a bit of heat, I love to cook niu rou mian, aka Taiwanese's iconic noodle soup. Flavored with aromatic spices, toban djan, and soy sauce, the beef shin is cooked slowly until the connective tissues break down and turns into a gelatinous meat that thickens the sauce it's cooked in. Having made Taiwanese beef noodle soup using the recipe from Danielle Chang's cookbook Lucky Rice for many years, I adapted her recipe for the Instant Pot which cuts the slow, labor intensive time to a fraction of what it normally takes.

Ingredient Notes

• Toban djan: is a condiment made from a blend of chillies and fermented fava beans that lends a tingly, hot Sichuan spiciness to the finished dish. You can find this in the condiment aisle at your local Asian supermarkets or online.
• Shaoxing wine: is a Chinese rice wine originating from Shaoxing, a city in China's Zhejiang Province. It adds depth and flavor to marinades for meats and braises.
• Aromatics: for this beef noodle soup, I used Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, cloves, cumin, fennel, coriander, cinnamon stick, dried chilies, ginger, and garlic to flavor the broth.

What Kind of Meat to Use

Taiwanese beef noodle soup is traditionally made with beef shin and tendons. I switched out the beef shin for beef shank which came out tender and moist. Beef shank is the leg portion and it tends to be more tough and sinewy. Beef tendon is the connective tissue between the bone and muscles and is a bit tougher than beef shank. With the help of the Instant Pot, they soften after 45 minutes of cooking.

Tips for Making Beef Noodle Soup in the IP

• Toast the spices in pan to bring out their fragrance.
• Wrap the cloves, fennel, cumin, and coriander in a little sachet made out of cheese cloth or muslin cloth if you don't want the spices mixing in with everything.
• Have all your ingredients prepped and ready to go.
• Brown the beef in batches because you don't want to overcrowd them in the pressure cooker.
• Depending on what cuts of beef you use, the cooking time will slightly vary. I used a combination of beef shank and tendons and both needed to be cooked on HIGH pressure to become tender but still have some bite.
• Cook the beef on HIGH PRESSURE for 45 minutes. Let it naturally release for 15 minutes then manually release the rest.
• Remove the beef shank and tendon. Let them rest before slicing the beef shank in smaller pieces.
• Strain the broth and discard the solids.
• Taste and adjust your seasoning at the end with black vinegar and additional soy sauce, sugar, or water.
• For a more flavorful finished dish, refrigerate the pot of beef and broth overnight, skim the fat off in the morning, then reheat when you're ready to serve.

With the help of the Instant Pot, this rich and comforting Taiwanese beef noodle soup took about an hour to make. I served it with fresh wheat noodles, bok choy, and pickled mustard greens. The beef shank was tender while the tendon had a wonderful bite with an aromatic and spicy broth to bring it all together.

For more comforting Instant Pot recipes: IP Vietnamese chicken noodle soup, IP Vietnamese beef stew, IP Vietnamese chicken congee.

• ▢ 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• ▢ 2.5 pounds beef shank, cut into 4 pieces
• ▢ 1 pound beef tendon, cut into 1-inch pieces
• ▢ 1 ounce ginger, crushed and cut into smaller pieces
• ▢ 10 garlic cloves, crushed with the back of a knife
• ▢ 1 small onion, roughly chopped
• ▢ 3 Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
• ▢ 1/4 cup sugar
• ▢ 2 tablespoons toban djan
• ▢ 1/2 cup Shaoxing wine
• ▢ 1 cup soy sauce
• ▢ 6 cups water
• ▢ 1 cinnamon stick
• ▢ 5 star anise
• ▢ 5 cloves
• ▢ 4 dried chilies
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• ▢ 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• ▢ 1 teaspoon coriannder
• ▢ 1 tablespoon black vinegar

For serving

• ▢ 1.5 pounds Chinese wheat noodles
• ▢ 1 pound bok choy
• ▢ 1 cup preserved mustard greens
• ▢ 1/2 cup scallion, sliced
• ▢ 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

• In a small frying pan over medium-low heat, toast the cinnamon, star anise, cloves, coriander, fennel, cumin, and peppercorns, for about 3-5 minutes until fragrant. Place the cloves, coriander, cumin, and fennel in a muslin cloth and tie the cloth with kitchen twine to make a little sachet.

• Program an 8-quart programmable IP toSauté. Add 1 tablespoon of oil making sure to coat the bottom. Sear the beef shank in two batches until all sides are brown, about 5 minutes, adding another tablespoon of oil between batches as needed. Transfer seared beef to a plate.

• In the same pot, heat the remaining oil. Add the ginger, garlic, onion, and dried chilies and cook until fragrant, about 
2 minutes.

• Add sugar and tomatoes and continue to cook until tomatoes have softened, about
 5 minutes.

• Add toban djan, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and water. Mix everything up with a ladle.

• Add cinnamon, star anise, and spice sachet.

• Return beef shank and beef tendon to the pot.

• PressCancel button to reset cooking program. Lock lid. SelectPressure Cook athigh pressure for 45 minutes. Naturally release the pressure for 15 minutes then manually release pressure from cooker until float valve drops.

• Unlock lid. Remove beef and tendon and transfer them to a container big enough to hold them. Beef and tendon should be chewy-tender but still have some bite.

• Strain the soup through a colander into a clean pot, and discard the solids.

• When the beef pieces have cooled, cut them into smaller pieces. Add meat and tendon back to strained broth.

• Bring the broth back to a slight boil, add bok choy, and simmer just until tender. Remove them from the broth. Season the soup with black vinegar, and additional soy sauce and sugar to taste.

• Cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling water according to the package directions, and drain them.

• Divide the noodles among large soup bowls, top with bok choy, mustard greens, and pour the soup over them. Garnish with scallion and cilantro. Serve immediately.

• For a more flavorful finished dish, refrigerate the pot of beef and broth overnight, skim the fat off in the morning, then reheat when you're ready to serve.

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Source: https://beyondsweetandsavory.com/instant-pot-taiwanese-beef-noodle-soup/

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