Beef Soup

My mom is cooking beef soup today. Beef soup is one of my favorite food. I love soup and I like eating it with rice and bread. And I like it more when I am having fever. The perfect beef soup to me is the one that contains enough spices and herbs, and tender meat.  

We usually eat beef soup with fried egg, fried salted fish and spicy shrimp paste sambal as condiment. And also steamy rice and cucumber. The shrimp paste sambal and fried salted fish give a contrasting taste to the soup. Sometimes, we also fry egg by adding salty pickled fish in it. 

Fried Salted Fish

There are many types of beef soup such as rib soup, bone soup, oxtail soup, and leg soup. The oxtail soup is delicious, because of its unique meat texture. But not many people like oxtail soup because they don't like eating the tail. Rib or bone soup is also delicious, but it must be cooked for a few hours to make sure the meat is tender and easy to eat. 

I like to mix several types of beef like some lean meat, a little fatty meat and some bones with meat attached to it in the soup because it will give a richer beef taste to the soup. The nearer the meat located to the bone, the richer taste of beef it will release. 

Fried Egg. Get the recipe here.

In the old days when our great great grandmothers still cook by using charcoal stove, the shallots and other ingredients used to cook soup and other meals are not grilled, but they are covered in warm charcoal for a while. Then after that they are peeled and used for cooking.

For me the process of grilling the spices and herbs has its own effect in the soup because it changes the chemical properties of the spices and herbs, thus releases a stronger and locked flavor of these ingredients. Instead of grilling or we call 'sangai', the spices can also be sauteed in the cooking oil in a short amount of time for the almost similar effect.  

Nowadays most of us do not grill the ingredients anymore. Malaysian people usually cook their soup by using ready mix spices which are sold in a 'bunjut' or bouquet garni. There are also ready mix powdered version of the soup spices sold in grocery stores. So we just add the bouquet garni in the soup. The soup will taste just great and delicious. 

Back to our topic, here is the beef soup recipe. Because I think this recipe has lots of ingredients I have divided them into small groups. I also share two different methods to cook this soup. 

My mother's beef soup. She used ready mix spices in bouquet garni to cook this soup. I add the cilantro as garnishing. Cilantro does add flavor to the soup. Some people add Chinese celery and onion spring. 

Ingredients

Meat

• 500 gram beef, boiled until tender and keep the broth, about 5 cups

Spices

• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 star anise
• 5 cloves
• 7 cardamoms
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorn
• 1/2 teaspoon white peppercorn

Herbs

• 7 cloves garlic
• 7 shallots 
• 3 inches garlic 
• 1 inch galangal 
• 9 bird eye chili (crushed)
• 1 onion cut into wedges

Vegetables

• 1 tomato cut into 4 pieces
• 2 or 3 potatoes cut in to smaller pieces
• Around 9 slices of celery

Seasonings

• 2 to 3 tamarind peels, or lime juice from 2 lime or to taste
• Salt and sugar to taste
• Cooking oil

Garnish

• Cilantro, Chinese celery or onion spring for garnish and extra taste of herb

Methods

There are two methods used to cook this soup. I will share both of them.

Method 1

• Grill cinnamon stick, star anise, cloves, cardamoms seeds, fennel seeds, white and black peppercorn and coriander seeds on a pan for 1 minutes. Then put aside. You can crush them a little to release more taste. You can also put them in a bouquet garni. 
• Grill the shallots, garlic, ginger and galangal in a pan also until a bit tender. Then remove the charred or burnt part of them. Then crush them. 
• In a pot, add 1 cup of water. Add in all grilled spices and herbs. Cook for 5 minutes or until aromatic then add the beef broth. Add in potatoes and cook it until almost tender.
• Add in the beef and tamarind peels. Cook for another 5 minutes.
• Then add in crushed bird eye chilies, onion and tomato. Add in also celery.
• Add in salt and sugar to taste and remove heat. If you are using lime juice, add them in after the heat removed and test taste.
• Garnish with Chinese celery, cilantro or onion spring. 

Method 2

• Slice or crush shallots, garlic, ginger an galangal. 
• In a pot, heat 5 tablespoons cooking oil. Then add in cinnamon stick, star anise, cloves, cardamom, fennel seeds, black and white peppercorns, and coriander seeds.
• Cook in 1 minutes and not more, and add in shallot, garlic, ginger and galangal. Stir and cook until golden.
• Add in onion. Stir until it release the aroma. 
• Then add in beef broth and potatoes. Cook until the potatoes become almost tender.
• Then add in the beef and tamarind peels. Cook for 5 minutes.
• Add in bird eye chili, tomato, and celery. 
• Cook for 3 minutes and add in salt and sugar. Test taste. If the taste is satisfactory turn off the heat. If you are using lime juice or lemon juice, add it in after the heat removed.
• Garnish with Chinese celery, cilantro or onion spring.