🇨🇳 China · Xi'an, Shaanxi
Yangrou paomoXi'an lamb and bread soup
A bowl of rich, milky lamb broth with sliced lamb, vermicelli and wood ear over flatbread that the diner has torn by hand into small pieces, so it soaks up the soup.
Origin and history
Xi'an's national intangible heritage record (second batch, 2008) names the Tongshengxiang restaurant, selling beef and mutton paomo in Xi'an since the early 1920s, as the protection unit, and lists the craft's stages: choosing the ingredients, boiling the meat, simmering the broth, seasoning and soaking the bread. The record also links the dish to ancient customs of offering lamb at sacrifices, a claim it cites no independent evidence for.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Total time
- 3 h 30 min
- Hands-on
- 50 min
Ingredients
- 900 g2 lb lamb shoulder or leg, in large pieces, plus a few lamb bones if you can get them
- 2.5 L10 cups cold water
- 1 thumb-sized piece ginger, sliced
- 2 scallions, for the stock
- 3 star anise
- 2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
- 2 tsp fennel seeds
- 5 cm2 in cassia bark
- 3 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
- 500 g4 cups plain flour, for the flatbreads
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 230 ml1 cup water, for the dough
- 80 g3 oz dried mung bean glass noodles, soaked until soft
- 3 large dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked and thinly sliced
- 1 handful dried lily buds, optional; soaked, hard ends trimmed
- salt, light soy sauce, white pepper, to season the soup
- 3 scallions, chopped, to serve
- 1 small handful coriander, chopped
- 1/2 head sweet pickled garlic (tang suan), to serve on the side
- chili oil or chili sauce, to taste
Method
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1. Put the lamb and bones into cold water, bring slowly to a boil and skim the foam for 10 to 15 minutes until little more rises.
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2. Add the ginger, scallions, spices and wine. Cover and simmer on the lowest heat for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, until the lamb is tender but still holds its shape and the stock has turned pale and creamy.
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3. Lift the meat out and let it cool, then slice it thinly. Strain out the spices and spoon off some of the fat if you like.
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4. For the bread, mix the baking powder into the flour, add the water and bring to a stiff dough. Rest 20 to 30 minutes, then knead until smooth.
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5. Divide the dough into 10 balls and press each into a disc about 8 mm (1/3 in) thick, with a slightly thicker rim. Toast them in a dry heavy pan over medium heat until browned and firm on both sides, then wrap in a cloth to cool.
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6. Soak the glass noodles, wood ear and lily buds until soft and rinse them. Slice the wood ear thinly and chop the scallions and coriander.
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7. Now comes the traditional part: tear each flatbread by hand into pieces the size of a soybean or a fingernail, 2 to 2 1/2 breads per person. Pieces that are too big will not soak through and ones that are too small turn to mush.
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8. Bring the stock to a boil and season with salt, a little soy sauce and white pepper. Add the wood ear, lily buds and torn bread and simmer until the bread softens and swells, then add the noodles for the last minute.
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9. Ladle into deep bowls, top with the sliced lamb, scallions and coriander, and serve with sweet pickled garlic and chili on the side.
Notes
- In Xi'an the diner tears the bread by hand, a slow job that can take 20 minutes per bowl, and the kitchen soaks it in the broth. The bread is a dense, firm flatbread; the homemade toasted discs here approximate it.
- The heritage record names beef and mutton paomo at Tongshengxiang, and its stages are boiling the meat, simmering the broth, adding ingredients, seasoning and soaking the bread. Each shop keeps its own broth, some leaning on spices and some on the flavor of the meat.
- Locals sometimes order a dry style (gan pao) with little broth and firm bread, eating from the edge of the bowl inward to keep it hot.
- Substitutions: if you cannot find lamb bones, use more shoulder. Store-bought naan is not the same, but a plain, dense flatbread broken small is acceptable in a pinch.
- The stock and sliced meat keep two days; make the bread fresh.
Adapted from National intangible heritage record, Xi'an beef and lamb paomo (ihchina.cn), Xi'an Torn Bread with Lamb Soup (home recipe with quantities), and Yan Can Cook / Yankitchen, Lamb Soup with Diced Chinese Bread.
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