Always a First! Pulled Beef with Soy Sesame Noodles

We've been meaning to keep a blog of our cooking and baking for some time now but never really got down to it. At the time of writing, we are about to move house and there are minimal ingredients and utensils in our kitchen. I thought this is surely the time to start, or we would probably never will!

This first recipe is something spontaneous. I've always wanted to know what 'pulled meat' tasted like and I've never really understood the concept but here is my own version of what I thought it was.

Interestingly, when I went to a new butcher's, he did a cut of part of the cow's leg, with bone in the middle and surrounding it, meat. I thought it would be great to slow cook it. We also needed to finish some white noodles we bought, hence the idea for the soy sesame noodles. Without further ado, here are the ingredients;

A cut of beef leg (or any other cut with bone, and the beef needs to be chunky) about 500g
1 white onion
2 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper
a swig of dark soy sauce

I sliced about 0.5cm thick slices of the onion to line the base of the slow cooker and placed the meat on top. The cloves of garlic were wholly crushed(no need to peel) and added in. As much salt and pepper as you like and as much dark soy sauce as you feel like. Cook on high heat for at least 4 hours.

For the noodles;

300g of any type of rice noodle
1 onion
2 shallots
4-5 cloves of garlic
half a thumb of ginger
1 red onion
1 green pepper
2 red chillies
dark soy sauce
salt and pepper
vegetable oil
sesame oil
sesame seeds
wedges of lime

As with any Asian type noodles, everything should be finely sliced. Heat about 3tbs of vegetable oil and 1tbs sesame oil. When really hot, add in the onion and shallots. Sweat it a little bit, then add in the ginger. Once soft, add in the garlic - I cook it until it turns brown and crispy, love the taste when it's cooked this way. Then add in the noodles, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Add the red onions and pepper at the end just to wilt it. I think it's nicer crunchy than cooked. Garnish with the red chillies and sesame seeds. Lime wedges on the side.

As with slow cooking meat, I never use oil. The fat from the meat and marrow gives a tremendous flavour. The beef just exuded it's own fat and in turn, the onion and garlic within were cooked and infused with flavours from the beef. After 4 hours, the bone just falls off, and the marrow seems to have melted away. I took out the beef, and with a fork, just rustled away pieces of the beef, and served on the side of the noodles.

Didn't have any at the time, but I thought some pickled ginger would be nice as a garnish as well. Was glad that Noreen loved it :)