Chinese Braised Beef With Ginger Food

CHINESE-STYLE BRAISED BEEF ONE-POT

Steps:

• Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a large, shallow casserole. Fry the garlic, ginger, onions and chilli for 3 mins until soft and fragrant. Tip onto a plate. Toss the beef in the flour, add 1 tbsp more oil to the pan, then brown the meat in batches, adding the final tbsp oil if you need to. It should take about 5 mins to brown each batch properly.
• Add the five-spice and star anise (if using) to the pan, tip in the gingery mix, then fry for 1 min until the spices are fragrant. Add the sugar, then the beef and stir until combined. Keep the heat high, then splash in the wine or sherry, scraping up any meaty bits. Heat oven to 150C/fan 130C/gas 2.
• Pour in the soy and stock (it won't cover the meat completely), bring to a simmer, then tightly cover, transfer to the oven and cook for 1½-2 hrs, stirring the meat halfway through. The meat should be very soft, and any sinewy bits should have melted away. Season with more soy. This can now be chilled and frozen for up to 1 month.
• Nestle the cooked bok choi into the pan, then bring to the table with the basmati rice straight away and tuck in.

CHINESE BRAISED BEEF AND NOODLES

Steps:

• Cook the noodles in salted boiling water just until tender; drain, and rinse under cold water.
• Cut the beef into very thin slices.
• Mix together the garlic, salt, ginger, and five-spice powder, and add the mixture to the beef; mix.
• Heat the oil and saute the beef over high heat for 2 minutes.
• Mix together the soy sauce and broth, and add it to the beef; bring to a boil.
• Mix the cornstarch with the remaining 4 tsp water, stir into the beef and cook until smooth and thick.
• Add noodles, mix well and heat thoroughly.
• Add the green onions, and stir for another minute.
• Serve immediately.

CHINESE BEEF STEW WITH POTATOES (土豆炖牛肉)

Steps:

• Put beef into a pot filled with cold water (enough to cover the meat completely). Bring the water to a full boil. Use a spoon to skim off the froth on the surface. Then drain well.
• In a clean pot, fry onion in oil over medium-low heat until soft and lightly browned. Stir in ginger and all the spices. Fry until fragrant.
• Add the beef, along with light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine and hot water. Bring it to a full boil then turn down the heat to low. Cover with a lid. Leave to simmer for about 1h30 until the meat becomes tender (see note 3 & 4). Give the broth a taste, add a little salt if necessary.
• Put potato and carrot chunks into the pot. Add some water if it seems too dry. Leave to simmer without the lid for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are fully cooked.
• Turn the heat up to reduce the broth if you wish. However, this step is entirely optional. Garnish with coriander (cilantro) if using. Serve immediately with plain rice.

CHINESE BRAISED BEEF WITH GINGER

Steps:

• Heat a little of the oil in a large flameproof dish. Add the beef chunks, in batches, and fry until browned. When each batch is browned, transfer the beef to another dish. Very roughly chop the onions, ginger, garlic and coriander stalks. Put in a food processor and whizz to a paste.
• Wipe any oil out of the dish you browned the beef in. Add the paste with a good splash of water and gently fry, scraping up any beef bits, until the paste is fragrant and softened (add more water if the paste sticks). Stir in the five-spice, star anise and peppercorns, cook for 1 min, then add the sugar, soy sauces and tomato purée. Return the beef and any juices to the dish, then stir in enough stock to just about cover. Bring to a gentle simmer. Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Cover the dish, put in the oven and cook for 21⁄2 hrs until the beef is really tender.
• Lift the beef out of the sauce into a dish, to keep warm. Boil the sauce until reduced by about half and thickened. Meanwhile, fry the ginger in the oil until golden and crispy. Return the beef to the sauce. serve the beef spooned over rice and scattered with the crispy ginger.

CHINESE BRAISED BEEF(ATK)

Steps:

• Add 2-1/2 cups water to Dutch oven. Sprinkle gelatin over water and allow gelatin to soften for 5 minutes. Set a oven rack to the middle of oven and pre-heat oven to 300-degrees. Prepare the scallions by separating the white and green parts. Slice the green parts thinly on a bias, and smash the white part. Peeled the ginger, cut in half lengthwise, and crushed. Peel the garlic and smash.
• Set Dutch oven over medium-high burner and heat for 2 to 3 minutes until the gelatin has melted. Add sherry, soy sauce, hoisin, molasses, scallion whites, ginger, garlic, five-spice powder, and pepper flakes. Then add beef, stir, and bring up to simmer.
• Remove Dutch oven from heat. Cover tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil, then top with the lid. Put in pre-heated oven and cook until beef becomes tender; 2 hours. Stir halfway through cooking time.
• Use a slotted spoon to remove beef to a cutting board. Strain sauce through fine-mesh strainer into a fat separator. Use paper towels to wipe out Dutch oven. Allow liquid to settle for 5 minutes, then return defatted juices to now-empty pot. Reduce liquid over medium-high burner, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 1 cup; 20 to 25 minutes; stirring constantly.
• Meanwhile while the sauce reduces, break beef into 1 1/2-inch pieces using two forks. In a small bowl, add cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water and whisk together until combined.
• Turn down burner to medium-low, re-whisk cornstarch, add into pot and cook for 1 minutes. Add beef back to pot, stir to cover beef. Cover and allow to cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is hot. Serve sprinkled with scallion greens.

CHINESE BRAISED BEEF AND POTATO STEW

Steps:

• In a sauce pan that has a lid (you'll use it later), bring water to a boil, add meat, bring back to a boil, then turn off and let stand while you prepare the vegetables.
• Prepare ginger, garlic, and leek or onion.
• Discard water off the beef, and add enough boiling water to almost cover the meat, along with anise, ginger, and leek or onion.
• Heat an empty wok over high heat, add lard or oil, heat and swirl in pan, then add garlic and stir quickly for a moment until the fragrance rises from the oil. Then add soy sauce and bring to a boil.
• Add soy sauce mixture to the saucepan with the beef, cover the dish, and braise for an hour or more, stirring occasionally, and discarding water that has condensed under the lid.
• While the meat and vegetables cook, peel and cut up the carrots and potatoes.
• Twenty to forty minutes before serving, add the carrots and potatoes and salt and pepper. (At this point, you may wish to enhance the flavor with a pinch of five-spice powder or ground cloves.).
• When the potatoes are cooked through and the sauce is just starting to thicken naturally from the potato starch, the dish is prepared.
• In north China, this stew is served with thick, chewy, crusty flat bread. In the south, with rice. Garlic-stir-fried spinach or other greens makes an excellent accompaniment.
• This amount serves 2 people, but may serve up to eight or ten alongside an appropriate number of other dishes as part of a family-style Chinese meal.

CHINESE-STYLE BRAISED SHORT RIB

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375˚F. You will need a frying pan, baking tray and a dutch oven, crock pot or a deep stovetop pot.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together soy sauce, rice wine, hoisin sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and stock/water until combined. Set aside.
• Season short ribs with salt and pepper and coat with flour.
• In a frying pan over medium-high heat, warm oil.
• Add garlic, ginger and star anise to frying pan and cook, stirring until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.
• Working in batches, add the flour coated short ribs and sear in the frying pan until all sides are browned. Remove ribs to a plate and set aside.
• Place garlic, ginger and spices into a crock pot, dutch oven or stovetop pot.
• If using a crock pot: put all ingredients (spices, wet ingredients, seared beef) into crock pot, turn on low and cook for ~4-6 hours or turn to high and cook for ~3-4 hours until the sauce has reduced and beef is tender.
• If using a dutch oven, or deep stovetop pot: stir in combined mixture of soy sauce, rice wine, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, sugar and water/stock and bring to a boil.
• Return ribs to pan and bring to a simmer for about 10 minutes.
• If using a dutch oven: cover and transfer to oven to cook (reduce oven to 325˚F), turning occasionally, until meat pulls easily with your fork, about 2 hours. If using deep stovetop pot: turn element to low heat and simmer for ~2 hours, watching for tenderness of meat and liquid level in case short ribs need more or less time.
• Once tender, transfer the ribs to a platter and cover to keep warm.
• For the glaze, remove 1 cup of braising liquid and skim off as much fat as possible from the surface.
• Place the braising liquid in a sauce pan and cook on high heat until syrupy, about 15 minutes.
• Divide the ribs among individual plates with rice and other veggies, spoon the glaze over the ribs and garnish with green onion.

CHINESE BRAISED BEEF SHANK

Steps:

• Marinating the beef: in the previously two days before making this dish, cut the long log into 3 sections and spread salt on the surface and then massage. Set aside for 2 or 1 day (at least overnight) with a weight on top.
• Clean the beef shank: before cooking your beef shank, rinse under running water to clean and then place them in a large pot with enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boiling and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes. Transfer out and clean with warm water.
• Soak all the spices with around 1/2 cup of boiling hot water for around 10 minutes. Drain and wrap all of them in a clean glaze bag and seal with cotton lines.
• Add beef shank in a cast iron pot; add leek onion, spring onion, shallots and sugar. Pour in soy sauce and enough beef stock to cover.
• Bring to boil and then simmer for at least 60 minutes to 90 minutes. Then remove from heat and soak overnight.
• Slice it thinly and serve directly or with dips (note1)