Cooking Casebook: Asian beef stew

We love our traditional beef stews. However, the hubby always has a preference for Asian food, so this Asian beef stew (modified from this recipe) gets his thumbs up! This stew is really easy to prepare, and I love how versatile it is: you can serve it with noodles, or eat it with rice. 

ASIAN BEEF STEW

(serves 6 if eaten as a main, 8 if served with noodles or rice)

Ingredients

2 large onions, peeled

5 cm piece of ginger, peeled

5 garlic cloves, peeled

3 tbsp sesame oil

250 ml Chinese cooking wine

5 tbsp soya sauce

3 tbsp oyster sauce

3 tbsp brown sugar

4 tbsp black rice vinegar

1 litre of beef stock (or just use water, and add another 2 tbsp of oyster & soya sauce each)

2 cinnamon sticks

2 star anise

1 kg of beef shin, chopped into cubes

3 carrots, chopped into thick slices

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150ºC.

2. Blend the onions, ginger and garlic in a blender or food processor until finely minced.

3. Heat the oil in a large pot (we use our 26 cm Le Creuset round French oven as it allows for stovetop to oven cooking). Fry the onion, ginger and garlic mixture until golden.

4. Add the beef and continue to fry for another 10 minutes. 

5. Pour in the Chinese wine, followed by the stock (or water), black rice vinegar, soya sauce, and oyster sauce.

6. Let the mixture come to a boil. Add the sugar as well as the cinnamon sticks and star anise.

7. Stir, cover the pot, and cook in the oven for 2.5 hours.

8. Remove the pot from the oven, and add the carrots. Add some water to the pot if the stew is drying out. Return the pot to the oven to cook for at least another 30 minutes to an hour, until the beef is tender. 

9. Serve with noodles (we usually pair it with hibiscus noodle), or with rice.

Tips

1. We add the carrots later so that they do not become too mushy. If you are intending to freeze a portion, remove the carrots as they become soft when reheated. This recipe is freezer friendly!

2. You can add a dash of five spice powder to the beef for additional flavour.

PS: This post is the fifth in a series of posts written in collaboration with Le Creuset Singapore. You can find the entire series of posts here. We were sponsored some of the products pictured for purpose of these posts, and no monetary compensation was received.