Boat noodles
A dark spiced beef noodle broth thickened with blood stirred in off the boil.
Pork, Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, beef stock, fish sauce, pork.
Ingredients
- 600 g beef shin, in cubes
- 300 g beef, thinly sliced, to serve raw
- 200 ml pig's blood
- 1.5 litres beef stock
- 400 g fresh rice noodles
- 3 star anise
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 teaspoon five-spice powder
- 40 g galangal, sliced
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons palm sugar
- 200 g morning glory
- 2 tablespoons pickled garlic liquid
Method
- THE BLOOD GOES IN OFF THE BOIL AND NEVER BOILS AFTERWARDS. It is what makes the broth dark, slightly thick and velvety; brought to a boil it seizes into grains and the broth turns gritty and brown. Heat off, blood whisked into a ladle of hot broth first, then that stirred back in.
- Strain the blood before you start. Clots stay clots.
- Simmer the beef shin in the stock with the star anise, cinnamon, five-spice and galangal, covered, 2 hours, until the shin gives completely.
- Fish sauce, dark soy, palm sugar and the pickled garlic liquid in. That last is a small sour note and it is what keeps a rich dark broth from going flat.
- Taste the broth before the blood goes anywhere near it. Once it is in, further boiling to adjust is not available to you.
- Blanch the noodles 30 seconds in a separate pan of water, and the morning glory for 20.
- Heat off. Blood tempered into a ladleful, then stirred back through the pot, which will darken as you watch.
- Back onto the LOWEST heat for 5 minutes, stirring, never above a shiver.
- SMALL BOWLS. This is served in portions a third the size of an ordinary noodle soup, and a large bowl of it is overwhelming by the halfway point.
- Noodles in the bowl, raw sliced beef on top, hot broth poured over to cook it, greens and crisp pork rind last.
Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.
Filed under Thailand · All recipes