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Originally Posted by petre
Initially i just cut the beef into small pieces, and saute them on a dry non stick pan, until they r brown, and I'll add the other stuff...but at the end, the beef will still be chewy and tough, even tho I cooked it close to an hour, and the beef themselves are cut really small..
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This sounds like trying to stir fry, but cooked way too long. This kind of meat needs to be cut in very small pieces for this kind of cooking (1cm or thinner strips), then cooked on a really high heat. In a wok this would be cooked in 2 or 3 minutes + 2 or 3 minutes for the veges (also cut small). e.g. of good veges to use - snow peas, carrots, mushrooms, onion, cabbage, capsicum (what you would call red bell pepper).
This kind of meal should be cooked inside 5 minutes - most of the time is spent cutting it up.
In terms of sauces, someone else mentioned soy, but it is worth finely cutting garlic, chillie, ginger to fry before the meat, and you could add oyster sauce, rice wine, plum sauce, or any other marinade you feel like...
Serve this with rice, or add some oriental noodles (soba etc.) into the wok when everything else is cooked. Yum!
Otherwise, as mentioned, this kind of meat can be cubed and cooked slowly for hours...my favourite atm is a Jamie Oliver recipe, with Pumpkin where you basically throw everything in your oven proof pan, and stick in the oven for 3 or 4 hours until the pumpkin falls apart. This recipe here in fact:
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My wife Jools goes mad for this stew in the colder months of the year, and the kids love it too. It's a straightforward beef stew to which all sorts of root veg can be added. I really like making it with squash and Jerusalem artichokes, which partly cook into the sauce, making it really sumptuous with an unusual and wonderful flavor.
The great thing about this stew is that is gets put together very quickly, and this is partly to do with the fact that no time is spent browning the meat. Even though this goes against all my training, I experimented with two batches of meat--I browned one and put the other straight into the pot. The latter turned out to be the sweeter and cleaner-tasting, so I've stopped browning the meat for most of my stews these days. --Jamie Oliver
Jools's Favorite Beef Stew
(Serves 4)
Olive oil
A knob of butter
1 onion, peeled and chopped
A handful of fresh sage leaves
1-3/4 lb stewing steak or beef skirt, cut into 2 inch pieces
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Flour, to dust
2 parsnips, peeled and quartered
4 carrots, peeled and halved
1/2 a butternut squash, halved, deseeded and roughly diced
Optional: a handful of Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and halved
1 lb small potatoes
2 tablespoons tomato purée
1/2 a bottle of red wine
1-1/4 cups beef or vegetable stock
Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
A handful of rosemary, leaves picked
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
Preheat the oven to 300°F. Put a little oil and your knob of butter into an appropriately sized pt or casserole pan. Add your onion and all the sage leaves and fry for 3 or 4 minutes. Toss the meat in a little seasoned flour, then add it to the pan with all the vegetables, the tomato purée, wine and stock, and gently stir together. Season generously with freshly ground black pepper and just a little salt. Bring to the boil, place a lid on top, then cook in the preheated oven until the meat is tender. Sometimes this takes 3 hours, sometimes 4--it depends on what cut of meat you're using and how fresh it is. The only way to test is to mash up a piece of meat and if it falls apart easily it's ready. Once it's cooked, you can turn the oven down to about 225°F and just hold it there until you're ready to eat it.
The best way to serve this is by ladling big spoonfuls into bowls, accompanied by a glass of French red wine and some really fresh warmed bread. Mix the lemon zest, chopped rosemary and garlic together and sprinkle over the stew before eating. Just the smallest amount will make a world of difference--as soon as it hits the hot stew it will release an amazing fragrance.
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