If the directions are all siblings - i.e. not mixed with other prototypes/notes then the first directions note (the first child of the menu item) will have a $SiblingOrder value of 1. Thus the directions prototype could use a $DisplayExpression:

"Step "+$SiblingOrder+": "+$Name"

So if the first direction had the title ($Name) of 'Soak beans in water', it would show as 'Step 1: Soak beans in water'.

If each ingredient has an ingredient-prototyped note of its own, it doesn't need to be a copy/alias child of a menu item.  Instead the latter could have an $Ingredients Set or List**. The container of the ingredient notes would populate its $Ingredients with the titles of all its children:

$Ingredients = collect(children,$Name);

The pop-up auto-lists in key attribute boxes show all existing values. As at least one note now holds all those values, when adding $Ingredients in the menu item notes all available ingredients will be listed.

** An ingredient might be used twice, e.g. coriander in the main stock and later as a chopped garnish. You might thus want to list the ingredient twice, which is possible in a List attribute but not a Set.

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With my cook's head on, I think you've actually chosen a topic with lots of edge cases that makes a complete system quite hard. But it's good for learning - even if not that usable at the end. On the way you'll learn a god few core techniques and things that do and don't work. IOW, even if the project looks like not ending as you'd expected, I'd keep going for now as it's a good learning vehicle.