Friday 28 September 2012

Stew Beef


My husband like to eat stew beef. Many years ago, I used to work and seldom cook at home. Part of the reason was I only know how to cook simple dishes. Unlike my mum-in-law who is a real super good cook. Because of this reason I seldom cook but watch her do the cooking most of the time. There are time when I happen to end work early, I will come home and be her "disciple". Help in the kitchen and at the same time asking her questions "how to cook this? how to cook that?.....". My mum-in-law is really good at chinese dishes...and she does cook stew meat but not beef. She used pork instead of beef. But my husband love beef instead of pork for this dish.

In the past,each time when we go out for meal and happen to see a stall that sell stew beef, my husband will surely order. Each time as he eat, he will say "very nice"..... For this reason, I gave myself this challenge that must learn how to cook stew beef.

Ingredients :
500gm short rib beef  cut into cubes
1 potato cut into cubes
1 carrot cut into cubes
1 big tomato cut into 8 pieces
1 big onion cut into 8 pieces
3 garlic remove skin (no cutting)
1 can of button mushroom /some fresh swiss brown mushroom

Seasoning:
3 tbsp light sauce (I used Tai Hua Special grade)
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp Heniz worcesterhire sauce
1 tsp black soya sauce for the color
a dash of pepper
3 black pepper corn
2 pcs of clove
1 bayleaf (optional)

1 tsp of cornflour / potato flour

Method:
1. Season the beef with above seasoning  then add in 1 tsp of cornflour . Let it season for an hour.
2. In a deep pot or Happy Call Pan (HCP), add 1 tsp of oil. Pan fry the potato and carrot. Remove  potato and carrot from fire and set a side when they are slightly brown on each sides. Pan fry mushroom and remove from fire and set a side
3. In the same pot/HCP, add another 1 tsp of oil, put in the big onion and garlic to fry till fragrance.Put in the beef to pan fry until all sides are slight brown
4. Add water that cover the meat. Roughly 1/2 cup. You may add more if needed.
5. Once it is boil and add tomato and you can at this point check whether the seasoning is of your desire and add a little more light sauce to suit your taste, lower the fire and cover and continue simmer about 1 hour.  After an hour, add carrot and mushroom and a dash of basil. Continue to simmer another 30min.
6. Add potato when the meat is tender. Continue to simmer another 10min. Off fire and serve with rice.

Note : if you find it is too watery, add 1 tsp of cornflour/potato with 2 tsp of water and stir into the stewed beef before off fire.  This dish can be replaced by pork if you do not take beef. But need to reduce the cook time by 30 min.

21/Jul/2014
Slow Cooker Method
From above point 5 - After adding tomatoes, once the stew start to boil, off fire and transfer to slow cooker and set at High heat to allow to cook still you see bubbles. Then add potatoes and let the stew continue to cook until meat is tender. Then switch off electricity.

27 Sep 2016:
Pressure Cooker Method:
After above item 2. , I put raw beef cubes and all the fried onion and potatoes and carrots, etc into pressure cooker and add water to almost cover ingredients and seasoning. Closed the cooker cover. Put to function for beef /mutton and cook until it completed the cycle. It is about 35mins.


You may be interested in some of the meat dish:
1.Char Siew
2.Toaster Oven Roasted Pork Belly- Siew Yuk
3.Homemade-Burger




3 comments:

  1. That's so sweet, Catherine! I, too, seldom cook. Actually, I don't cook. Hahaha. But when I met my fiance, that's the time that I realized that I need to start learning how to cook. My man loves to eat. And I need to stop getting jealous of those chefs in restaurants when he compliments them. I've started with easier recipes, and I will soon move to the challenging ones. I'm trying your recipe for the weekend. Thanks for sharing!

    Liz Peters

    ReplyDelete