Beef and hofan soup
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Filed under My recipes; Noodle fest; Asian, beef, Superb soups, Vietnamese
If only people would read and read well, they would know how useless it is to ask me to e-mail them recipes. If only people would read and read well, they would stop asking where the recipes are since the pagination links are very plain to see. I’m taking my own advice too. If only I read and read well, I wouldn’t have messed up all the dishes with hofan noodles that I have cooked in the past. Hofan noodles are not cooked. They are soaked in cold water for about half an hour, placed in a bowl and boiling broth is poured over them. Although I have an explanation for past mistakes — no instructions in English on the hofan packages — that excuse won’t work with the latest pack of hofan noodles I bought. I read them and read them carefully and the result was a spectacular lunch. I wish some readers would do the same with the screaming GUIDELINES FOR USE OF THIS SITE that is in every permalink page of this blog.
This beef and hofan dish was inspired by the Vietnamese Pho although the broth is nothing like the traditional broth used for Pho. I was able to buy a tray of litid (beef ligaments) from Unimart and I simmered them in a casserole with lots of pork bones. Simmered them for over six hours, actually, because that was how long it took to make the litid very tender. The broth was wickedly wonderful — and I mean wickedly wonderful. It was thick because some of the litid has melted into the liquid giving it a sticky and gelatinous texture.
There is no actual cooking involved in making this hofan noodle soup. It’s the broth that’s cooked and the rest is just a matter of assembly. If your heart condition cannot tolerate the litid, omit it from the broth and from the dish. The following recipe assumes that you have already cooked the broth. For instructions on how to make homemade broth, click here.
Ingredients :
dried hofan noodles
sukiyaki-cut beef
cooked beef litid
a small carrot
onion leaves (garlic leaves and leeks will work too)
broth
toasted garlic bits (optional)
How to:
Soak the hofan noodles in cold water for about 30 minutes. Drain.
Place the noodles in a large bowl.
Peel the carrot. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the carrot itself so that you have thin strips that will cook in the hot broth in a matter of seconds.
Cut the onion leaves (or garlic leaves or leeks) into thin rings.
Cut the beef into small pieces, about two inches by two inches.
Cut the litid into bite-size pieces.
Arrange the carrot strips, greens, uncooked beef and cooked litid on top of the noodles. Pour boiling broth into the bowl. Sprinkle some toasted garlic bits on top and serve at once.
Now, this is important. The broth has to be boiling. The broth was still simmering on the stove when I assembled my hofan noodle dish and I used a ladle to pour some into my bowl. Broth that is less hot will not cook the beef nor soften the noodles.
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13 Responses to “Beef and hofan soup”If you want your own pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
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A tip for cold-soaked noodles… Instructions for the soba noodles I usually get says to refresh the noodles after they’re boiled in cold water to remove excess starch, then to dunk the cold noodles again in hot/boiling water briefly to warm them up if using for soups. I do that for all cold-soaked noodles now (e.g rice sticks and ho fun) since I find that the soup temperature drops too much for my liking if I leave the noodles cold before pouring on the hot soup. Unfortunately this also means that you waste water and energy, so there’s that trade-off there.
I find comments asking “can I have the recipe” very annoying. I noticed that you’ve had to put disclaimers to “click page 2 for recipe” in almost every post you make to cut down on those comments, but it’s still happening :/
hi connie! very timely recipe i have a pack of hofan noodles waiting at home. i need to make a good broth nga lang, hope i can make something like yours! i am a frequent visitor of your site and am really thankful that you have this blog! keep ‘em coming!
Alam ko po galing sa comment ko yun words ninyo. Siguro po kaya di napapansin yun guidelines ninyo ay basa muna yun picture sa taas bago yun comment agad at sasabihin “can I have the recipe” o pahingi ng recipe. Parang walang pakialam po sa guidelines dahil gusto nila mailuto agad yun picture ng ginawa ninyo.
Thank you again for using my comment as a part of this blog… Ngayon nasa top page na.. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year.
Thanks so much for the tip on how to prepare the hofan noodles. I often find it very frustrating that instructions on so many of the imported products sold in our supermarkets have no english translation usually leaving the me clueless about the product. I LOVE YOUR SITE!!!
oww, gosh, ganito pala ang pagluto ng Ho Fun noodles and Soba. I always experiment on different noodles when I make my Mami, and most of the time, mine comes out elastic or or starchy. There’s the direction, but its in Vietnamese or Chinese. I love Egg noodles, but like I have said, not until now that I found out how to prepare them. Thanks Connie, and thanks other bloggers.
Hello Ms. Connie!
I just want to express my delight on the different themes and designs you’ve utilized these past few days. That “pink” was simply amazing! But I guess this present theme is already the one viewers associate PinoyCook with.
Kudos Ms. Connie, for raising the bar for all food bloggers!
Hi Connie, I love your site and i enjoy reading all your articles and cooking tips. Thank you very much and more power. God bless you and your family.
Ebba, marami na rin pinalpak sa experiments hehehe
Lalaine, actually, I wanted to keep the pink design but the scripts in the theme killed the server yesterday and all my blogs went offline for several hours. And this is a dedicated server ha, na-down pa rin. After reverting back to this theme, everything was stable.
You are welcome, Renato and Sylvia.
Thanks for the recipe, i will try it for sure.
I am going to look for some Ho Fun noodles this weekend, kasi idea ko yon ang iluluto ko for some out of town visitors that we’re having on Christmas morning. The guy really wanted some Mami. I think I’ll cook it with roasted chicken, and bola-bola.
i’m cooking some hofan noodles tomorrow. good thing i read this entry. thanks for the tip!
did this too last saturday. i used beef knee cap for the broth. aside from the roasted garlic, i used also fried shallots that hubby got from singapore. super yummy! thanks so much!
beef hofan dry i also good