Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Black Vinegar Braised Beef

In the latest issues of Donna Hay magazine, there are lots of slow cooking recipes for our current cold wintery season. In particular, there are a few interesting ones that cook beef brisket and I'm keen to cook these for my meat-eater husband and son. 

For a start, I have chosen to cook this Chinese-style recipe from Autumn issue of the magazine. This recipe is slightly similar to the sticky Asian pork ribs that I have cooked previously but uses Chinese rice wine and doesn't use any ginger and cinnamon.

During our dinnertime, my family and I are usually very chatty at our dinner table. However, on this night, we were strangely quiet when were eating this dish with steamed rice and Asian greens. I was enjoying this nice and cosy silence in our house as I knew immediately that both my husband and son were "busy" eating these melt-in-the mouth braised beef.

Lucky that I can anticipate that my family would love this dish and so I cooked double the amount of this recipe and portioned them out into containers to freeze them for our weeknight dinners. Now, I'm thinking of eating this with Lena's wholemeal Mantou...

black vinegar braised beef Donna Hay

Ingredients that make this delicious braised beef

Here's the recipe from Donna Hay magazine Issue 62 Autumn 2012.
(with my modification in blue)

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) (or 160°C fan forced). Place 1 kg beef brisket in a large, heavy-based saucepan with 1 cup (250ml) Chinese rice wine, 1/2 cup (125ml) Chinese black vinegar, 1/4 cup (45g) brown sugar, 1 cup (250ml) oyster sauce, 4 cloves crushed garlic, 1 1/2 cups (375ml) water and 3 star anise. Cover and cook for 3-3 1/2 hrs or until cooked through and tender. Remove beef from the cooking liquid and use 2 forks to shred meat, discarding any fat. Strain the cooking liquid, place in a bowl with the beef and mix to combine. Serve beef with steamed Asian greens and rice. Serves 4. 

Note: Using double amount of this recipe, I have slow-roasted 2 kg of stewing steak for 4 1/2 hrs. I have also reduced the amount of star anise to just 3 for my cooking.

Happy Cooking
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26 comments:

  1. What a scrumptious dish ! A great winter or summer dish served with rice and greens ! Dinner couldn't get better than that !;D

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  2. Wow! I love Asian food! The meat looks so tender!

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  3. LOL silence on the dinner table. What a beautiful complement to a delicious meal! Lena's mantou's great too.

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  4. Looks delicious! I can see why your family enjoyed it! I do not eat beef and I think that this would be great with pork leg too! Yum! So jealous of your cool weather there! It is extremely hot and humid over here! :)

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  5. Yaya, should be delicious with pork, will this when I am in the mood to cook:D

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  6. This is my top favourite gravy though I don't have it often. I think it has been years since I last taken it. haha.... Oh man, you just tempted me and am craving for some right now. haha....
    Hope you're having a wonderful day, dear.
    Kristy

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  7. No wonder there was silence at the dinner table, too busy chewing and enjoying the food rather than talking! Looks yum!

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  8. Zoe,,,I love this recipe very much,the beef look perfecly tender and seasoned,I need to find chinese black vinegar now will try this recipe soon :)

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  9. Yum! This sounds a little like the black vinegar trotters. I can just imagine the flavors already! Drooling! And you're right, it'll go great with mantou! Double drool!

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  10. This recipe reminds me of my grandmother's braised pork. She adds lots of shallot, ginger, dried Chinese mushroom, and chestnuts. My family is Taiwanese.

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  11. I haven't tried using Chinese black vinegar. This tasty dish tells me that I should try it soon!

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  12. Oh yes, my Hubs would love this! Love that you can freeze it.

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  13. how i wiah with a touch of a button, i can fly over my mantous to you..your braised beef is really looking great, the gravy sounds very appetising too!

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    1. This is emergency! Please teleport some of your mantou to Melbourne now! LOL!

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  14. Oh that looks so incredibly good! isn't it great when you cook an amaZing meal and your whole family just loves it!
    mary x

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  15. I absolutely love chinkiang vinegar! I've never tried it beef but it sounds like that's going to change! haha. We make braised pork short ribs with the vinegar..the sauce gets thick and sticky and nicely coats the short ribs.

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  16. That meat looks so fall apart perfect.

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  17. This looks mouthwatering and I love that it can be saved for future meals!

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  18. Not only it looks delicious but sounds like it too! Love the ingredients especially with star anise in it! Will definitely try during the cool winter months. thanks for sharing! :)

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  19. The meat looks really soft and tender..no wonder no ones chatting over dinner! I would be busy savoring every bite too!

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  20. Hi Zoe, I'm wondering if I could use the WMF type of metal pot to cook this in the oven? I read somewhere that we shouldn't cook vinegar in metal pots...

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    1. Hi,

      I'm not sure if the WMF pots are oven friendly and are resistance to vinegar. I think it is best to check the cooking instructions with WMF manufacturers. This recipe does work well with any cast iron Dutch oven with properly coating. Cheers!

      Zoe

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