RECIPE: Red Curry Noodle Soup
This piquant dish makes great use of a pressure cooker to render super flavorful venison osso buco tender in a fraction of the time that traditional braising takes. It also helps fortify the broth with extra depth from the bones in the pieces of meat. Feel free to adjust the amount of curry paste or experiment with different types of curry pastes to suit your tastes and heat tolerance – the recipe does have a kick with the full 3 Tbsp of curry paste! Also have fun and mix up the veggies and toppings with what’s in season or what you have on hand as this recipe is very customizable. Mahalo Mark!
Mark Cockcroft
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Venison Osso Buco
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2-3 tbsp Thai red curry paste (depending on your heat tolerance)
- 1 (14 oz) can coconut milk
- 3 1/2 cups water
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp light brown sugar
- 1 lb gai lan (chinese broccoli) or broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces
- 8 oz rice vermicelli, cooked according to package instructions
- 1/2 cup Thai basil or cilantro, chopped
- Mung bean sprouts, fried shallots, lime wedges for garnish
DIRECTIONS
Set an Instant Pot (or similar countertop electric pressure cooker) to the sauté function and add the vegetable oil. When hot add the osso buco slices in one layer to the pot (it will take two batches) and lightly brown on both sides. Remove from the pot and repeat with the remaining slices and remove from the pot.
Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
Then add the ginger and garlic, stirring often, for about 1 minute.
Next, add the curry paste and a splash of coconut milk. Continuously stirring to dissolve the curry paste. Then add the remaining coconut milk, water, fish sauce, and sugar; bring to a boil. Hit cancel to stop the sauté function.
Add the venison along with any meat juices back to the pot and securely attach the lid and make sure the vent is in the closed position. Set the function to high-pressure cooking for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the gai lan until just tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking; set aside.
Prepare the noodles according to the package instructions and place the cooked noodles into 4 large soup bowls. Assemble the remaining ingredients to garnish the dish.
When the timer is done, carefully quick release the pressure. Carefully open the lid and remove the osso buco slices to a plate. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then pull the meat from the bones and shred it into bite-sized pieces.
Arrange the meat, gai lan, and bean sprouts in the bowls. Ladle the broth into the bowls and garnish with the Thai basil and fried shallots. Squeeze some lime juice into each bowl and slurp away!