清湯牛腩 beef brisket and white radish in clear broth

1. 牛腩先汆水

2. 月桂葉,陳皮,八角及花椒用茶袋裝起

3. 加入香料袋,蔥,鹽,砂糖,雞粉及水煮滾

4. 加入牛腩及乾瑤柱以小火煮一小時

5. 白蘿蔔洗淨去皮切件,加入白蘿蔔再煮一小時,完成

tips and tricks

• 汆水 (parboiling): add beef + water (just enough water to submerge all the beef) to pot, then bring to a boil. once the water's boiled, can turn off the heat and fish the beef back out. (don't forget to shake the beef chunks so the soup scum doesn't stick to it). important key note: when parboiling, we want to use cold water and bring it to boil WITH the meat. if you put the beef in when the water's already boiling, the soup scum will be cooked right away and stay stuck to the beef. it's only when blanching vegetables that we start with boiling water

• normally with soups, we don't season it with salt until the end because it's difficult to be sure about the exact amount of soup until it's done. and seasoning it at the beginning might mean that your soup might turn out to be too salty when the water evaporates. hooowever, in this case, we want to season it with salt in the beginning so that it gives the beef brisket more flavour

• don't add too much of the chicken powder and definitely don't use chicken broth because their flavouring is so strong it might drown out the beef flavour

• don't really need to pre-soak the dried scallops because we are cooking it for so long that it will for sure be good by the end hahah

• anytime you see bay leaves, star anise, and sichuan pepper, expect to have to let it simmer for at least 2 hours before all of their flavours get blended because each of these have its own super pronounced flavours and scents, so if you don't give it enough time, the flavours won't get blended. additionally, it dooooes just take quite a long time to get beef briskets to soften (it'll take extra long if your pieces have tendons)

• if you add 1L of water at the start, might have to add more midway to maintain the water level. alternatively, you can start off with 1.25 - 1.5L water instead to avoid having to add more water

• what's the difference between japanese and chinese white radish? the chinese variety is only in season during the winter and they're usually a bit bitter in the summer and when used in soups, they don't end up as sweet or tender compared to when they're in season. whereas japanese white radish always maintains its quality through the year

• white radish will be ready after being cooked for half an hour to an hour (you'll know its done when it's semi-translucent and you can poke a chopstick through it easily). so there are two approaches:

  1. add the white radish in with the beef at the very beginning. this is the more flavourful way because your beef will have more time to soak in the radish flavours. then after an hour, set aside your radishes and only include them back in the soup when you're ready to serve; or

  2. after cooking the beef for an hour, add the white radish in so that you don't have to deal with taking it out of the pot after the first hour

• using a teabag to store the 桂葉,陳皮,八角及花椒 is really to make your own life easier so you don't have to pick all them up individually when it's done