2010 Cooking Club Week 36: Mince Beef Noodles

blueirishangel

Mince Beef Noodles

Ingredients
• Half pound beef mince
• 2 teaspoons of szechuan peppercorns (I can never find them so I use normal black peppercorns)
• 1 cube chicken stock
• 1 or 2 red chillies (depending on how much you like chillies)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 lime
• 1 bunch spring onion (optional)
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 or 2 little gem lettuce (or bok choi if you prefer)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 75ml vegetable oil

Equipment
• large saucepan with lid
• wok
• pestle and mortar if you have one


1) Boil kettle and fill saucepan with the boiling water. Crumble in the stock cube, bring to the boil and then let it simmer at medium heat.

2) Heat wok to medium heat and toast the chillies for a few minutes.


3) Add the veg oil and then pour all the chillies and most of the oil into a bowl and put to one side.

4) Turn wok up and add the beef. Stir fry the beef for 10 mins until it is crispy. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t all get stuck to the bottom.



5) While the beef is cooking, slice the garlic up thinly. Chop the spring onions. Grind up the peppercorns. Cut the lime into quarters.


6) Put the noodles into the boiling water and watch them so they don’t stick together. Put the lid back on. Cook them for 3 / 4 mins depending on your type.

7) When the beef is done, spoon out any fat. Add the honey and stir fry until the beef is nice and sticky.

8) Put wok into the oven to keep warm.

9) Cut the little gem/bok choi into quarters lengthways and put them in with the noodles for the last minute or so of cooking.

10) When noodles are done, scoop out a cup of the water to keep, drain the rest and turn off the heat. Add the drained noodles and little gem back into the pot, along with the cup of water.

11) Add the raw garlic, soy sauce, ground peppercorns and the chill oil into the pot. Stir it all around and put the lid back on to keep warm.


12) Take out warmed bowls and divide noodles between them. Spoon beef over top of noodles. I like to give an extra drizzle of soy sauce here. Squeeze a bit of lime over and you’re good to go!


I have photos and hopefully I can add them tomorrow.

This is a really quick, tasty and morish dish that is from a Jamie Oliver recipe.

Little Alex

Savage recipe, blueirishangel!



I fried the minced beef until it was brown and then suspended it in a sieve and let all the fat drain out. After that I returned it to a low/medium heat until the mince was dry and a bit crispy. Except for that I followed the exact instructions.

blueirishangel

Thanks for trying Alex!! Glad you liked it.
I'm raging I can't get my pics up. I have them in a word document but can't find them on my computer.

Little Alex

blueirishangel wrote: »

Thanks for trying Alex!! Glad you liked it.
I'm raging I can't get my pics up. I have them in a word document but can't find them on my computer.

I am Little Alex, the madman that tries everything! ... relax, your recipe was delish!

foodaholic

Gonna make this over the weekend. just wondering how much noodles for the recipe ?

BaZmO*

blueirishangel wrote: »

Thanks for trying Alex!! Glad you liked it.
I'm raging I can't get my pics up. I have them in a word document but can't find them on my computer.

Just search for Word documents created around the date you made the recipe.

Dinkie

I don't like any type of sweetish dishes... is this recipe a bit like that?

I love the sound of it but not sure about the honey. Can you really taste it? Or is it a background taste?

I know I can make it without it, but want to check first.

BaZmO*

Dinkie wrote: »

I don't like any type of sweetish dishes... is this recipe a bit like that?

Nah, I think it's from Finland. :P

Little Alex

foodaholic wrote: »

Gonna make this over the weekend. just wondering how much noodles for the recipe ?

I used one portion of the "Straight to Wok" noodles per person.

Dinkie wrote: »

I don't like any type of sweetish dishes... is this recipe a bit like that?

I love the sound of it but not sure about the honey. Can you really taste it? Or is it a background taste?

I know I can make it without it, but want to check first.

If you mean that you don't like, say, pineapple on pizza or raisins in cous cous (like me) then you needn't worry: it doesn't make it taste too sweet!

Dinkie

BaZmO* wrote: »

Nah, I think it's from Finland. :P

Lol. Thanks BaZmO!!!

Little Alex wrote: »

I used one portion of the "Straigt to Wok" noodles per person.



If you mean that you don't like, say, pineapple on pizza or raisins in cous cous (like me) then you needn't worry: it doesn't make it taste too sweet!

Thats exactly what I meant. Sneaky pineapple, raisons, grapes, sweet and sour, plum sauce. Anything like that.

I actually don't like fruit. Will eat any veg, but no fruit.

Little Alex

Dinkie wrote: »

I don't like any type of sweetish dishes... is this recipe a bit like that?

BaZmO* wrote: »

Nah, I think it's from Finland. :P

:o Obviously I'm not a golfer* or maybe it's too early, but what's the joke?

* Quote from The Big Lebowski: failing to realise something obvious.

Dinkie

Sweetish = Swedish.

At least that was my interpretation of the joke, and I found it funny!:D

BaZmO*

Little Alex wrote: »

:o Obviously I'm not a golfer or maybe it's too early, but what's the joke?

Golfer?

Dinkie wrote: »

Sweetish = Swedish.

Yep, that's it!

TechnoPool

lovely

foodaholic

Made in last night for friends, all had empty plates.
liked the sweetness of the beef, but will add more chillies next time.
Thanks blueirishangel

Getting there

I made this over the weekend and it was delicious!

Really easy and quick but the taste really didnt reflect that.

I did use extra chillis though and a good bit of lime to counteract the honey because im not very keen on sweet meat dishes.

So definitely 2 thumbs up from us!

Mr Magnolia

Was savage, very moreish and nice and easy to put together, thanks blueirishangel.

Beanstalk

Here's my effort, this was lovely thanks for the recipe!

The Black Oil

Gave this a go recently and was pleased with how it turned out. Thanks OP

blueirishangel

Glad you guys all enjoyed it!!!

Pics are all great

boodlesdoodles

I make something very similar to this but only with pork the beef mince is gorgeous as well! I also sprinkle over crushed prawn crackers to give a bit of crunch.

rubadub

Little Alex wrote: »

I fried the minced beef until it was brown and then suspended it in a sieve and let all the fat drain out. After that I returned it to a low/medium heat until the mince was dry and a bit crispy. Except for that I followed the exact instructions.

I sometimes dump my mince into a bowl and then spoon it back in, same sort of idea -most of the fat staying in the bowl. Some supermarket mince is very "loose", not all mashed together, these can be separated into strands loosely into a bowl. I then get a wok/saucepan on high and put a few strands in -this means they do not end up stewing, any moisture falling out is instantly boiled off, and you get lots of tiny crispy "steaks". I dump these out and start again and collect them all and reheat again at the end.

Has anybody any other tips? I notice if a pack of mince is left open in the fridge it dries out at the open end. I was thinking I could spread out a load of mince on a tray and put it in the fridge for a few hours, or it might take a day. This should dry out the mince a bit and stop all that moisture falling out and stewing the beef when I want it crispy.

I have also mixed garlic powder and cornflour and lightly dusted my mince, this draws the moisture out and forms a sort of batter on the mince strands.

I imagine loose mince could be put in an oven at a very low heat to dry it out a bit prior to frying, sort of like making beef jerky in the oven.

Malari

I tried this last night, with a couple of variations, and it was very tasty. Yes, it's fast but I felt a bit panicky with everything on the go at the one time And I remembered why I don't use a wok very often, as my kitchen just fills with smoke.

cc-offe

This was really yummy and I'm not normally impressed with anything that has soy sauce in it. Really really good though, Thanks for posting!!

cc-offe

So good blueirishangel that I made it again today!:D

BaZmO*

Finally got round to making this tonight. It was gorgeous. Couldn't find the Szechuan Pepper so used Black Pepper. 2 teaspoons though? Sounded and looked like an awful lot, even though I tend to use a lot when cooking, so I just what I thought was enough.

cc-offe

BaZmO* wrote: »

Finally got round to making this tonight. It was gorgeous. Couldn't find the Szechuan Pepper so used Black Pepper. 2 teaspoons though? Sounded and looked like an awful lot, even though I tend to use a lot when cooking, so I just what I thought was enough.

I used a black pepper grinder and added in what I thought was enough too, I also left out the lime juice and only added half the soy sauce, I didn't know when to put in the spring onions so I just put them in after the mince was cooked and just before I put the honey in.

I think it would be yummy with stir fried beef strips too! Great recipe, really different to the food I normally eat!

snowgal

yum yum yum! I love mince and I love noodles so this was perfect! I made it last weekend and Im having it again this eve. Ill prob add a few more veg, peppers onions etc just cos Im terrible at eating them but I need to! I did very little honey and loads of chillis, delicious, cheers

Cheshire Cat

That sounds delicious. I assume that this is meant to serve 2? Or are we greedy? Will definitely try it soon!

banquet

I dont think I have ever made anything that is that simple and cheap to cook and tastes so delicious. I added a little extra honey and a little less pepper.

TeletextPear

Had this tonight and absolutely loved it, thanks op! Added peppers and mushrooms.

dixiefly

We made this for the second time this evening as we had made when the recipe was originally posted.

Just as good if not better this time.

We wont leave it as long next time.

ksceniaonegina

Where can I get szechuan peppercorns?

fitzcoff

Made this today, hadn't made it in years but spotted the pepper corns in my local health food shop last week, just as yum as I remember.

Great to revive the cooking club recipes