Braised Beef

Beef shin cooked long and slow with daikon, and the broth kept to drink alongside.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

• 900 g beef shin, in 4 cm chunks
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons chilli bean paste
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
• 4 slices ginger
• 2 spring onions, halved
• 1 piece cassia bark
• 1.2 litres hot water
• 500 g daikon radish, in 3 cm chunks

Method

1. Blanch the shin from cold water for 5 minutes, skimming the grey foam, then rinse it. Shin throws off more of this than any other cut and the broth is being kept, so it matters more here than usual.
2. Fry the chilli bean paste in the oil over a low heat for a minute, until the oil turns red and smells sweet rather than raw. Keep the heat low; the paste burns before you expect.
3. Add the beef, ginger, spring onions, cassia, soy sauce and wine, and turn it all together.
4. Pour in the hot water — enough to cover the meat generously, because this is going to run for over two hours and you want broth at the end, not a glaze.
5. Simmer, covered, for 2 hours. Top up with hot water if the meat comes clear of the surface.
6. Add the daikon and cook another 30 minutes, until it has gone translucent at the edges and takes a spoon without resistance.
7. Lift out the ginger, spring onion and cassia. Serve the beef and daikon in bowls with the broth poured over, and rice alongside rather than under it.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes