Chinese Braised Beef

Chinese Braised Beef, via ATK with my notes

Ingredients

1 ½ tablespoons unflavored gelatin
2 ½ cups plus 1 tablespoon water
½ cup dry sherry
⅓ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons molasses
3 scallions, white and green parts separated, green parts sliced thin on bias
1 (2-inch) piece ginger, peeled, halved lengthwise, and crushed
4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 ½ teaspoons five-spice powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 pounds boneless beef short ribs, trimmed and cut into 4-inch lengths
1 teaspoon cornstarch

Directions

Sprinkle gelatin over 2 1/2 cups water in Dutch oven and let sit until gelatin softens, about 5 minutes. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees.

Heat softened gelatin over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until melted, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in sherry, soy sauce, hoisin, molasses, scallion whites, ginger, garlic, five-spice powder, and pepper flakes. Stir in beef and bring to simmer. Remove pot from heat. Cover tightly with sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, then lid. Transfer to oven and cook until beef is tender, 2 to 2 1/2 hours, stirring halfway through cooking.

Using slotted spoon, transfer beef to cutting board.

Strain sauce through fine-mesh strainer into fat separator. Wipe out pot with paper towels. Let liquid settle for 5 minutes, then return defatted liquid to now-empty pot. Cook liquid over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced to 1 cup, 20 to 25 minutes.

While sauce reduces, using 2 forks, break beef into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Whisk cornstarch and remaining 1 tablespoon water together in small bowl.

Reduce heat to medium-low, whisk cornstarch mixture into reduced sauce, and cook until sauce is slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Return beef to sauce and stir to coat. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until beef is heated through, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle scallion greens over top. Serve.

Notes

We’ve made this twice. Excellent, excellent recipe. We don’t add the green onions because green onions were made by Satan to distract from the given goodness of garlic. This last time we added a pound of sliced baby portabella mushrooms. It was nice, but a LOT more liquid to strain out of the mix. We also made the meat smaller, so that it would be more tender. Instead of shredding it like the recipe specifies, I cut the meat into smaller pieces across the grain, to add tenderness. We made it with Carolina Gold (type, not brand) rice and it was excellent. That rice is fucking expensive, but it’s damn good.

Another note is that I’ve been using a brand of molasses called “Slo-As” that has fantastic taste and minerality. I also think this could be made with a cut-up roast instead of the short ribs, which are getting expensive. Haven’t tried that yet.

bon appetit