← Nouns Cooking · Chinese

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg beef shank or chuck, cut into 4 cm chunks
• 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 5 slices Ginger
• 6 cloves Garlic, smashed
• 4 Spring onion, cut into lengths
• 1 Onion, cut into wedges
• 2 Tomato, cut into chunks
• 2 tbsp Doubanjiang (chilli bean paste)
• 1 tbsp Tomato purée (paste)
• 120 ml Shaoxing wine
• 80 ml light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp Dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rock sugar or brown sugar
• 2 Star anise
• 1 Cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
• 2 Bay leaves
• 4 Dried chillies
• 2 l Water
• 600 g fresh wheat noodles (or 400 g dried)
• 4 baby bok choy, halved
• 100 g pickled mustard greens, to serve (optional)
• 1 handful Coriander (cilantro) (optional)

Method

1. Put the beef in a large pot of cold water, bring to the boil and boil for 5 min. Drain and rinse off the scum.
2. Heat the oil in the cleaned pot over medium heat. Fry the ginger, garlic, spring onion and onion for 3 min until golden at the edges. Add the tomatoes, doubanjiang and tomato paste and fry for 2 min more, until the oil turns red.
3. Add the beef, wine, both soy sauces, sugar, spices, bay leaves and chillies and stir for 1 minute, then pour in the water and bring to the boil.
4. Cover, turn the heat to low and simmer for 2 hours 30 min, until the beef is very tender when pierced. Skim off excess fat and taste for salt.
5. Shortly before serving, cook the noodles in a separate pan of boiling water according to the packet, adding the bok choy for the last 1 minute. Drain.
6. Divide the noodles and greens between big bowls, ladle over the beef and broth and top with pickled mustard greens and coriander.

Tips

• The braise tastes even better the next day; chill it and lift off the fat before reheating.
• Fish out the whole spices before serving, or tie them in a muslin bag at the start.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Omnivore's Cookbook Taste of Asian Food Tiffy Cooks