Beef Hofan

This beef hofan is made with the chewy and thick hofan noodles, crispy beef, crunchy bean sprouts and the famous hofan sauce. This dish is so fulfilling, you can either eat this as a snack or a whole meal. Best served with hot tea! Yum!

BEEF HO FAN

Beef ho fan is a type of noodle dish we got from the Cantonese cuisine. What made this dish stand out is the hofan noodles. This noodle is made with rice flour and uniquely stands out is its thickness. It is wide and thin, and is best when coated with the hofan sauce.

During our Chinese nights, I usually prepare the usual — siomai, siopao, noodles, hakaw, etc. This last Friday, my friend giften me a small bottle of the Chinese shaoxing cooking wine. This wine has an eccentric sweetness to it, that no sugar, sweetener or other wines can give. This type of wine is especially used in Chinese dishes. Upon seeing the wine, I remembered the hofan noodles I tried at Binondo last year. Now is my time to shine to make one.

Instead of pancit canton, I served beef hofan noodles for our Chinese night. My niece, who is a fan of my pancit canton, got some mixed emotions. As soon as she tried the hofan noodles, she immediately liked it. Since then, the pancit canton and beef hofan noodles will be served alternately on our Chinese nights (until I have some shaoxing wine left!).

If you wanna know to make some beef hofan noodles, simply read and follow the recipe below.

HOW TO COOK BEEF HOFAN

Don’t be intimidated with the long list of ingredients below. Beef hofan noodles is actually very easy and exciting to prepare, especially if you don’t really cook hofan noodles that often.

In every dish involving meat, it is always recommended to marinate them first. In this recipe, I used the simple salt and pepper just to extract the meaty taste naturally and not be overpowering. Add the baking soda, potato starch and soy sauce to finish the marinade.

The hofan sauce is really of my faves. It is made my combining the seasonings and the chinese shaoxing wine. The wine is optional since you need to go to a chinese store to have them. This wine has its distinct flavor which I think what really give this hofan dish its delightful taste. Some recipes made extra of this sauce and use it as a marinade.

If you cannot really find some shaoxing wine, you can use some mirin or dry sherry as an alternative. Just to a taste test to balance the taste.

Now that the beef and the hofan sauce is ready, the last ingredient to prepare is the hofan noodles. You can buy either fresh or packed hofan noodles. In this recipe, I used the fresh ones. Simply microwave them and they are already ready to use. For the packed ones, simply follow the cooking instructions at the back of the pack. The boiling is just similar to cooking other noodles.

To get them all together into a wonderful dish, time to heat the pan. Saute the onions and the beef and make sure it’s crispy. I like mine almost charred and burnt. Add the bean sprouts and hofan noodles when the beef is fully cooked so that the bean sprouts will remain crunchy when served. Lastly, add some fresh onions, or top them before serving.

I like having my hofan noodles as a snack with my hot tea. It is really fulfilling and can almost qualify as a whole meal!

Beef Hofan Recipe (TAGALOG)

Para sa beef and marinade:

• 500 g beef (hiniwa ng maninipis)
• Konting asin
• Konting paminta
• 1 kutsarita ng baking soda
• 1 kutsara ng potato starch
• 1 – 2 kutsara ng toyo

Para sa noodles:

• 500 g fresh o packed hofan noodles
• Mantika pang-gisa
• 1 sibuyas (hiniwa)
• 1 ½ tasa ng togue
• 7 – 11 piraso ng spring onions

Para sa sauce:

• Konting  asin
• Konting paminta
• 1 kutsarita ng potato starch
• ¼ piraso ng beef broth cube
• 1 tablespoon chinese shaoxing cooking wine (optional)
• 3 – 4 kutsara ng toyo
• 2 kutsara ng oyster sauce
• ½ tasa ng tubig

Paano Gawin:

1. Ihanda ang mga beef strips at ilagaw sa bowl. Budburan ng asin at paminta. Ilagay ang baking soda at potato starch at haluin gamit ang mga kamay. Sunod na ilagay ang  1 – 2 kutsara ng toyo at haluin. Imarinate ito ng 10 – 15 minuto.
2. Para sa sauce, paghaluin ang asin, paminta, potato starch at beef broth cube sa maliit na bowl. Haluin. Sunod na ilagay ang chinese shaxine cooking wine (optional), soy sauce, oyster sauce at tubig. Haluin ng mabuti.
3. Ihanda ang fresh hofan noodles at ilagay sa isang bowl. Imicrowave ito ng 40 – 50 seconds. Paghiwahiwalayin ito gamit ang mga kamay.
4. Magpainit ng mantika. Ilagay ang sibuyas at igisa ng ilang minuto. Sunod na ilagay ang beef strips at igisa hanggang maging  brown, crispy at medyo masunog sunog na.
5. Ilagay ang togue at ang hofan noodles. Haluin ito ng mabuti. 
6. Ilagay ang hofan sauce at haluin para malagyan lahat ng sauce.
7. Huling ilagay ang spring onions at haluin pa ng konti.
8. Ilipat ang hofan noodles sa serving dish. Samahan ito ng mainit na tsaa. Enjoy!