Thai Beef Noodle Soup - Gwaytio Nuea Nam

MattZU's Note:

This is an excellent, quick, beef noodle soup that never fails to please. It is adapted from Jennifer Brennan's Original Thai Cookbook. For the noodles, try to find packets of wet noodle sheets. These can usually be found in Asian groceries, refrigerated, in clear plastic bags. If you can't find these, you can substitute dried rice noodles, but soak them first. The fish sauce is the Thai Nam Pla sauce, or Tiparos, found in the Asian section of supermarkets, or in Asian groceries.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1/2 lb round steak, fat removed, sliced into thin strips
• 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 lb ground beef
• 2 stalks celery, sliced diagonally into inch-long pieces
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 3 pints beef stock
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons fish sauce
• 12 ounces wet noodle sheets, cut into strips
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar (optional)
• 1 tablespoon dried red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions:

1. Fry beef strips in the oil until browned, using a large soup pot.
2. Remove the browned strips, leaving the oil and juice in the pot.
3. Fry the garlic until golden, stirring to keep from burning.
4. Quickly add the ground beef, celery, and scallions--cook while stirring until the beef just browns.
5. Add beef stock, black pepper, cinnamon, and fish sauce.
6. Bring to a boil.
7. Add noodles and return to a boil.
8. Remove from heat and add bean sprouts.
9. Top with beef strips and cilantro (this can also be done after putting the soup into the individual bowls).
10. If desired, soak the red pepper flakes in the vinegar, and allow to be added to individual bowls.

Reviews

[Chef #1105664]

This soup is amazing.....soooo easy, yet sooo good!

[cole72788]

My girlfriend is from Khon Kaen, Thailand and she introduced me to this soup. We have it at least nights a week and we always make enough to eat later that night or for lunch the next day. THe first time I had this soup was homemade so I have tried few other soups in the restuarants that even compare to this one. We do make ours a little differnt though: sometimes instead of using noodles we will use rice and serve it in a seperate bowl, we use beef paste from the oriental grocery store rather that beef broth/stock, we don't cook our meat or saute our vegetables seperately we put it in the boiling water, we use celery along with mushrooms and a lot of broccolli, and we put the fish sauce, vinegar, red pepper flakes, cilantro, sugar, bean sprouts, and fried garlic oil in our bowls and then add the cooked soup when ready to serve. It keeps it tasting fresh for a next day meal. One other thing we like to do that is common to where she was raised is to dip fried pork skins in our broth....... sounds weird but you have to try it!!!!!

[Bondnz]

I've made this recipe on several occasions now & keep forgetting to update my rating. This soup is so versatile & always comes out tasting tops! Tonight I used pork mince with shredded chicken & 1/3 chicken stock to 2/3 beef stock for a combination of flavours (because that's what we had in the pantry!) It was the best yet. I love the kick of the chili & vinegar at the end. It's a wonderful recipe, one of our favourite quick & easy yet so sooo tasty meals... Although unfortunately it can make eating out a little bit disappointing at times - no-one makes a noodle soup as good as I can these days lol!!! Thanks :)