Beef Stew

Cooked beef stew – fusion style - for dinner last night.

I like to use beef shin – the small amount of tendon in the meat makes for a more tender, smoother texture and bite. I also like to cook it with more gravy, so that the leftovers can be used the next day to top egg noodles, rice vermicelli or even pasta. Overnight, the gravy and meat tastes even better – all the flavors seem to have meld together even more - and makes for really yummylicious beef noodles!

I used just over a 1kg of beef, chopped into fairly large chunks. After lightly browning some minced garlic in hot oil, the beef was added and quickly browned to seal in the juices. Then added all the seasonings - around 4 tbsps of light soy sauce, 2 tbsps of dark soy sauce, 4 tsps of sugar and pepper to taste. All these can be adjusted for personal preferences and according to the amount of beef that is being used.

Just a quick sauté to coat the beef evenly with the flavorings, then water or beef stock is added, to completely cover the beef – (again, this can be adjusted to personal preference as to how much gravy is wanted). Leave to simmer slowly on fairly low heat.

After about an hour, the diced onions (lots of it) are added. A further hour later, blanched, skinned and diced tomatoes (again lots of it) are added. Both add a nice natural sweetness and tanginess to the stew. Finally, about 30-45 minutes before the stew is done, drop in the chunks of carrots, celery and potatoes. Yesterday, had a small flower of cauliflower left lying in the fridge, so threw that in as well – and it tasted pretty good! I prefer to add these ingredients at various intervals so that I can control the texture. I like the onions and tomatoes to be cooked down so much that they practically dissolve into the gravy, making for a naturally thick, rich, sweet and flavorful sauce. The shorter cooking time for the vegetables means that they still have some bite to them.

And for lunch today, the family had the remaining stew with flat egg noodles – yum!

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