Ingredients:
3 strips bacon
1 pound beef (I used chuck steak)
Fry the bacon in the bottom of a cast iron dutch oven.
Add 1-1/2" of the white end of a leek, thinly sliced.
Preheat a large cast iron fry pan while this is cooking.
Remove the bacon when it's crispy. Pat dry and set aside.
Pour some of the bacon grease into the fry pan.
Add water to the leeks in the dutch oven, to 3" or 4" depth.
Add 2 tsp concentrated chicken stock (not beef stock).
Bring the stock to a boil; turn back to medium.
Slice the beef thinly (1/8") across the grain, and then into 1-1/2" lengths.
Season generously with freshly ground pepper.
Brown the beef strips quickly on both sides in the bacon grease, a few at a time.
As soon as they're brown on the sides, transfer to the boiling chicken stock.
Add vegetables, all cut to very thin 1-1/2" lengths:
3/4 cup carrots.
The rest of the white portion of the large leek.
1 entire leek leaf.
2 large stalks of celery.
1/2 of a jalapeño pepper.
Optional:
A handful of fresh brown mushrooms, thinly sliced.
A few cloves of garlic, peeled and either sliced or smashed.
Season aggressively with:
celery seed
freshly ground pepper
And season gently with:
ground cinnamon.
Chop up a portion of Chinese cabbage into the now familiar 1-1/2" lengths. Fill a large soup bowl 1/3 full with the chopped cabbage. Ladle boiling soup over the top and let it rest for five minutes. The boiling soup will cook the cabbage, and the cabbage will cool the soup to a temperature that can be eaten.
I like this soup with fresh milk and white bread or a roll that will handle dipping.
Subjective evaluation: this is one of the best things that I've ever cooked. The flavors have elements of both boldness and subtlety, the vegetables include the gently crisp cabbage with the gentler carrots and the tender beef. The chicken broth gentles the boldness of the beef wonderfully, but I think it's the cinnamon that brings it all together. This is better fresh than day-old.
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