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Chinese-inspired Beef Stew

Recipe by Connie Veneracion
The original recipe uses five-spice powder, and I had none on the day I cooked the stew. So, I used the five spices that make up five-spice powder — star anise, fennel seeds, cloves, cinnamon bark and Sichuan peppercorns. If you have five-spice powder, a teaspoonful will do.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Asian Fusion
Servings 6 people
Chinese-inspired beef stew garnished with scallions
Print Recipe

Equipment

  • Pressure cooker

Ingredients
  

  • 1 ½ kilograms stewing beef I used short ribs but crest, shank or shoulder blade will also be good
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • ¼ cup flour
  • 4 tablespoons cooking oil
  • ¼ cup chopped scallions
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 two-inch knob ginger peeled and julienned
  • 2 bird’s eye chilies chopped
  • 2 star anise
  • 1 two-inch piece cinnamon bark
  • ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
  • ½ teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
  • 4 cloves
  • 1 generous splash rice wine
  • 2 cups bone broth
  • 4 tablespoons dark soy sauce
  • 4 tablespoons dark brown sugar
  • finely sliced scallions to garnish

Instructions
 

  • Place the beef in a single layer in a container with a tight lid.
  • Sprinkle salt and pepper generously.
  • Sprinkle the flour on the meat, cover the container tightly and shake to coat each piece of meat with flour. Alternatively, use a resealable plastic bag.
  • Heat the cooking oil in the pressure cooker.
  • Brown the beef in batches.
  • Scoop out the beef and keep warm.
  • Reheat the cooking oil in the pan and add the ginger, garlic, scallions, chilis, cinnamon bark, star anise, cloves, fennel seeds and Sichuan peppercorns (of the five-spice powder, if that’s what you’re using).
    Sauteeing spices in pressure cooker
  • Cook, stirring often, until fragrant, about two minutes.
  • Pour in the rice wine.
    Pouring rice wine into pan
  • Scape the bottom of the pan to loosen the brown bits.
    Scraping pan to loosen browned bits
  • Allow the rice wine to almost evaporate, about a minute.
  • Return the browned beef to the pan.
    Adding browned beef to spices in pan
  • Pour in the broth and soy sauce.
  • Add the sugar. Stir.
  • Taste the sauce and add salt, as needed (I don’t recommend adding more soy sauce because that will make the dish too dark and rather unattractive).
  • Seal the lid on the pressure cooker, wait for the valve to whistle, then turn down the heat to a simmer and cook for 60 to 65 minutes.
  • Turn off the heat, wait for about ten minutes for the pressure to die down then remove the lid.
  • Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings, if needed.

Notes

Updated from a recipe originally published in March 15, 2012
Keyword Beef Stew