Braised Beef and Herb Soup

INGREDIENTS

To make the beef soup

• 2 kg of tough cuts of beef (beef honey cone trips, beef tendon, beef ribs, beef meat, beef bones)
• 2-3 liters of water
• 2 inches of ginger, sliced thinly
• 2 scallions, cut into stocks
• 1 cinnamon stick (Amazon Link - https://geni.us/cinamon-sticks-8oz)
• 1 star anise (Amazon Link - https://geni.us/star-anise)
• 4 bay leaves (Amazon Link - https://geni.us/bay-leaves)
• 2 tsp of white peppercorns (Amazon Link - https://geni.us/white-peppercorns)

To complete the soup

• 10-15 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 inch of minced ginger, diced
• 2 scallion, diced
• 2 shallot, diced
• 5-8 Thai bird-eye chili, diced
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 1/3 cups of diced mint leaves
• 5-6 culantro leaves, diced
• 6-8 cilantro leaves, diced

Lime juice from 2-3 limes, taste and adjust

• 2 tsp of Sichuan peppercorn powder (Amazon Link - https://geni.us/sichuan-peppercorns)
• 1 tbsp of salt or to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Fill a big pot with water and add the beef. Bring it to a boil. Skim off the scum. Any tough beef cuts will work good for this recipe. Do your best to collect multiple cuts of beef so you can have different textures and flavors in one pot.
2. Put the following aromatics and spices into a spicy bag: ginger slices, scallion stalks, cinnamon stick, star anise, bay leaves, and white peppercorns.
3. Transfer the beef into a clean pot then add 2-3 liters of water. Add the spice bag. Bring it to a boil. Simmer on low heat for 1.5 hours.
4. Finely dice the garlic, ginger, scallion, shallot, celery, Thai bird-eye chili, mint, Culantro, and cilantro. Squeeze the juice from a few large-size limes. If you can not collect all these herbs, it is ok to use other kinds of herbs you like.
5. Remove all the beef from the pot and leave the broth behind. Discard the bones and the spice bag. Cut the beef into bite-size pieces.
6. Put the beef meat back into the clay pot. Bring it to a boil again. Add all the herbs along with the Sichuan peppercorn powder and salt to taste.