Oodles of Noodles for Mom (also Steak)
Two tasty (and easy) dishes to make for Mom this Sunday 💖💖💖
Happy, happy Mother’s Day! To celebrate, we’ve prepared two recipes that you can make for mom and/or, if you are a mom, send to your children as a (non)-subtle nudge to cook for you on Sunday 😏. Both dishes are delicious, meaningful, and low-stress for even the most anxious cooks.
Green Bean Steamed Noodles
With their long strands, noodles are a symbol of longevity in Chinese culture (kind of like the threads of life that the Fates in Hercules manage). Eating a big bowl of delicious noodles on your birthday is a time-honored tradition, and we call these birthday noodles 长寿面 (cháng shòu miān) - or “long-life noodles.”
Traditionally, mothers make this dish on their children’s birthdays to bring them best wishes for a long, healthy life. For Mother’s Day, this green bean steamed noodle recipe is the perfect way to show your love and appreciation for mom.
Food Lore
This dish originates in northwestern China, a region that grows the best quality wheat with its mineral-rich soil and long hours of sunlight. Naturally, this region is famous for all things starch: noodles, dumplings, steamed buns, bread, pancakes, you name it.
This dish was invented by farmers in the region and has been around for a looooong time. The life of a farmer was (and is) extremely busy, so families came up with dishes that were easy to make and filled with as many nutritious ingredients as possible (think throwing-your-fridge-into-a-stew vibe). With fresh & tender green beans, soy-sauce sauteed beef or pork, and a noodle base, this dish can serve as a standalone meal to feed the whole family. The noodles are steamed for four reasons: 1) the steam gives the dish a tender and moist texture, 2) it maximizes nutrient preservation, 3) a delicious aroma will fill your home, and 4) steaming makes it really easy (and forgiving) to make.
Notes
If you like vinegar, soak peeled garlic cloves in a jar of black vinegar and store for ~1 month. Drizzling this on top of the noodles (or if you’re Lisa’s dad, every dish) gives it an extra, tasty kick. As an added bonus, garlic and grain-based vinegar are natural anti-inflammatory foods, and they are great for building stronger immunity 💪🏻!
Soy Sauce Braised Steak
Both of us love finding ways of merging Chinese and American cuisines (someday we’ll revisit Lisa’s attempts to Americanize mooncakes - tl;dr there was a lot of peanut butter involved). Sharing this East-meets-West twist on a classic, Beijing recipe felt like a fun way of celebrating our joint mother-daughter passion 💜.
Food Lore
There are four main culinary systems in China: 川 (chuān), 鲁 (lǔ), 粤 (yuè), 淮扬 (huái yáng), representing West, North, South, and East China, respectively. Soy sauce is the soul of braised dishes across all four of these cuisines. There are a variety of soy sauce braised dishes that basically center on [hero ingredient] + soy sauce = 🤤. Soy sauce braised chicken, soy sauce braised fish, soy sauce braised veggies - you get the idea.
The traditional soy sauce braised steak comes from Beijing. The meat is usually cut into 1-2 inch cubes and braised in a ceramic pot using soy sauce, ginger, green onion, white pepper, star anise, and a bit of salt and sugar. The steak is tender, juicy, and slightly salty and sweet. The lore behind our twist on this classic dish is that we wanted to merge the cooking style of pan-seared steak recipes in America with the flavor profile of soy sauce braised steak. Plus, being able to use a pan instead of a ceramic pot makes this a more accessible dish to cook!
Notes
The recipe has details for braising the steak, but if you have a preferred temp & duration you use for pan-searing steak, use that and just follow our steps for flavoring the steak!