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Singaporean Beef Mulled Wine Soup
A friend of mine asked me to have a go at this one, as it is a favourite food whenever he is staying over in Singapore. He called it Singaporean beef mulled wine soup, because of the resemblance to traditional mulled wine we have in Europe. I had to do some research to find some possible versions of this to at least give me a clue. I also used duck for this version, not beef. A little twist as I always have to, to ensure I am making something new.
Apparently it is the first thing he does when he lands in Singapore, a quick rush to his local hawker to gobble this down. Sounds a bit like Bourdain with his chicken rice fetish. But he still can not advise me the name of this, just describe roughly what it tastes like – that’s all I have to go on, so anyway I had a go and here is my Singaporean beef mulled wine soup, a dish I hope that tastes somewhat authentic albeit a bit cocked up on ingredients with duck not beef etc. Whatever!!! It was bloody good, lets just call it Fusion.
Don’t be too precious on the measures here as, as I was literally just tipping straight from the spice jars, as I had no idea of what to do on this initial version of Singaporean beef mulled wine soup – this is when cooking is fun, complete bloody guess work.
To make 4 big bowls of soup, you’ll roughly need;
- 4 cloves of garlic, simply bash the de-skinned cloves with the side of a knife;
- 4 inches or so of peeled and roughly chopped young ginger;
- 3 teaspoons of black peppercorns;
- 1 teaspoon of cloves;
- 2 teaspoons of star anise;
- 5 tablespoons of soy sauce;
- 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce;
- 2 tablespoons of brown sugar;
- 1 tablespoon of Chinese 5-spice powder;
- 3-4 tablespoons of garlic oil (I simply heated some oil and bashed some garlic cloves with the skins on this time. Then slowly fried and tipped the whole lot in the pot when they were softened); and
- 2 beef stock cubes.
Ready to make Singaporean beef mulled wine soup, then first take a big stockpot or saucepan, and add about 3 litres or water, and all the ingredients above. It really is that simple, I kid you not. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for about two hours.
What I need you to do is reduce the stock by about one third by slowly simmering it down. Keep stirring to stop any sticking. This will start to thicken the soup stock as well as intensify the flavours. Strain the soup in to another pot to lose all the bits of herbs and spice. You should now be left with a beautiful fragrant stock.
Then take a packet of Kway Teow noodles, and cook those in the broth until softened.
Now here is where you can choose what meat you want to use. You could add some thinly sliced shabu shabu beef and let it cook in the warmth of the broth, or as I did this time just thinly slice some smoked duck breast and arrange on top. Delicious. In a small bowl, lay some of the noodles, spoon on some of the soup, arrange your slices of meat and sprinkle some chopped green tops of a Spring onion to finish off your Singaporean beef mulled wine soup.
This is a really good soup. I mean come on it can’t get much easier than above, all you have to do is throw stuff in a pot for a couple of hours and pop back every now and then to stop it sticking. This truly does actually remind me of Christmas – but a Singaporean beef mulled wine soup at Christmas, and with smoked duck this time not beef. Kind of strange! Kind of good!!! Fiddle with the recipe as you wish, but just – ENJOY!!!
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