My husband loves steak. He would never say no to steak in almost any form as a dinner suggestion. I get less enthusiastic responses to other menus I present. Last week I mentioned barbequed chicken for dinner and he actually said to me, “No, I think I’m chickened out”. Is that even grammatically correct? I remember chickening out as being scared to take a dare on the playground, not refusing a menu option!
At any rate we have a lot of steak. To my husband’s credit he likes sirloin, which is less expensive and a bit leaner than most cuts.
I usually serve grilled steak with a huge salad and we split a potato. I’m ok with that and enjoy a few bites of steak, however, over the years I’ve learned that the steak dinner isn’t what Sammy is really craving – it’s steak and biscuits. He spends an inordinate amount of time glancing at my plate hoping for leftovers. There always are. A little steak goes a long way with me. So he generally gets his steak and biscuits another day and I have one as well and wish I could make something with leftover steak that is a little more figure friendly.
My son and I were enjoying bowls of noodles at a favorite Japanese Restaurant the other evening when it suddenly occurred to me that an Asian Inspired Savory Steak Soup would be just the thing for left-overs.
The soup was delicately flavored with lots of fresh herbs and rice noodles. Pieces of thinly sliced beef were added to quickly cook in the broth. Why not make my own, add a few more greens and thinly sliced leftover steak? I told my husband we were having steak soup for dinner, he thought a minute and ever hopeful said, “Will it have dumplings?” He is just a big Southern boy at heart, but to his credit he liked the soup and did not say one word about the spinach. I’ll still make steak and biscuits, I worked at Ireland’s in high school so it’s in my blood, but this soup will be a wonderful cold weather addition to our recipes.
It was particularly fun to make this on Talk of The Town with Meryll Rose yesterday. What’s more entertaining than two women who like to cook together in a kitchen?
Asian Inspired Savory Steak Soup
Ingredients
8 cups beef broth
2 cups water
4 whole star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
¾ lb leftover grilled sirloin steak, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp sherry or mirin (rice wine)
4 oz rice noodles (can substitute thin spaghetti)
¼ cup sliced basil
¼ cup sliced mint
¼ cup minced cilantro
1 cup (large handful) spinach
½ cup sliced green onions
1 cup bean sprouts (optional)
3 Tbsp fish sauce
¼ tsp pepper
Optional garnishes: lime wedges and sliced red chili
Directions
Combine beef broth, water, star anise, cinnamon stick and ginger and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove and discard star anise, cinnamon stick and ginger.
While broth simmers, marinate steak in sherry or mirin.
Soak rice noodle in warm water for about 10 minutes.
To cooked broth add noodles, basil, mint, cilantro, spinach, green onions, bean sprouts, fish sauce and pepper.
Add beef and marinade and heat through, about 1 minute.
Serve with garnishes if desired.
