IP Braised Chu Hou beef brisket

More autumn flavours. Minimal fuss, I didn't even bother to blanch first. Finally found the correct method for getting melt in the mouth brisket and without getting mushy veg!

Ingredients

1kg beef brisket

2 tbsp chu hou sauce

2 tsbp oyster sauce

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp white peppercorns, toasted and crushed (put in a tea bag)

2 to 3 tsp soya sauce (to taste)

2 slices ginger, thinly julienned

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 spring onions, chopped + 1 for garnishing

1 bell pepper, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 beef bullion cube, crushed

2 tbsp corn flour + 2 tbsp water to make a slurry

Method

1. Marinade the beef with the chu hou, soya sauce, and oyster sauce. Leave overnight.

2. In the Instant Pot, saute the aromatics. 

3. Add a trivet and pour in 1.5 C water (I pour the water into the marinating bowl to wash out the leftover marinade). Put beef brisket on top of the trivet. Cook using the Meat function for 50 minutes.

4. Remove the brisket and let it rest. Once rested, slice it up.

5. While waiting for the brisket to rest, make the sauce. Add the beef bullion cube and tomato paste. 

6. Add the tomatoes and bell peppers. Use the Saute function. and let the sauce reduce to about half. Do not cover.

7. Once the sauce has reduced and the vegs are cooked (no more than 5 minutes), add the corn starch slurry to thicken up the sauce.

8. Serve up and garnish with more spring onion. 

IP Chu hou and spiced beef brisket

Been searching around elusively to recreated my mom's thinly spiced beef shin, served cold. I think it's probably closest to Christine's spiced beef shin because she doesn't use chu hou and uses sichuan peppercorns. The recipe by China Sichuan for braised beef shank is a lot more complicated as it involves a lot more aromatics (leek, green onion, shallots, ginger), spices (bay leaf, sichuan peppercorn, cumin, fennel, black and green cardamon) and also uses beef stock. No doubt delicious but also not the kind of spices I have handy.

Since I had Chu Hou, I decided to follow Omnivore's recipe because it uses the IP. Here's my adaptation. She cut up the meat to reduce cooking time but I prefer to leave it whole so I can serve it cold and thinly sliced. While I also blanched the beef to remove impurities, I didn't bother with the separate blanching ingredients. I don't normally blanch but this time I did and I'm glad I did because boy, the blanching liquid was so smelly! She uses it in her braising liquid later and even suggests keeping the remainder but I found my liquid too smelly. Maybe it was because my brisket was thawed, who knows.

Ingredients
1 to 1.2kg beef brisket
2 cinnamon sticks
4 star anise
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 thick slices ginger
¼C shaoxing
2 tbsp dark soya sauce
4 tbsp light soya sauce
2 tbsp rock sugar
1½C water

Method
1. Bring water to a boil. Blanch the meat for 10 minutes. Drain in a colander and wash off as much impurities as you can. At this point, I smell the water, if it's too smelly, I throw it out. If not, I skim off the impurities and set aside.
2. In the IP, turn on to Saute. With about a tbsp of oil, saute the cinnamon, star anise, garlic, and ginger until fragrant (about 2 minutes)
3. Pour in the shaoxing and deglaze the pot by scraping up all the brown bits of goodness.
4. Put the beef back.
5. Add the dark soya, light soya, rock sugar, and water.
6. Bring back to a boil and again, skim off any impurities and oil that floats up.
7. Switch to Meat/Stew and pressure cook for 1 hour (1kg) to 1 hour 10 minutes (1.2kg).
8. Allow the pressure to naturally release.
9. Best to let the beef steep in the braising liquid overnight.
10. Next day, skim off the fat that has congealed and slice the beef thinly. The sauce can be reduced to serve with or used for something else (e.g., cooking vegetables). Serve with steamed rice.

Soaking overnight in the braising liquid

Recipe feedback
It is very close to my childhood tastes except my mom liked it a lot sweeter. I kinda like this less sweet version. I find it strange however that cloves weren't use. For proper Chinese 5-spice, cloves are needed. I'll add a few next time.

Slow cooker Coq Au Vin

I have always wanted to cook with red wine but the few times that I've tried it with beef didn't taste so great. Eventually I found out that I had been missing a key step - I need to boil off the alcohol otherwise it leaves a bitter taste! Decided to re-try coq au vin which surprisingly, pairs chicken with red wine. I'd always been taught that red wine goes with red meats and white wine goes with white meats but I guess chicken is poultry which is 'neutral'.

Here's a great writeup of Julia Child (the doyen of American cooking) with her interpretation of the recipe and it works quite well!

https://leitesculinaria.com/5399/recipes-julia-child-coq-au-vin.html

I've tweaked it for our tastes so I cannot claim this to be either authentic Julia Childs or French. Original recipe includes tomato paste, thyme, and bacon which I didn't have on hand.

Ingredients
1.2 kg of chicken drumsticks
3 bay leaves
2 glasses of red wine
1l of chicken stock
1 tbsp onion chutney
2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 large carrots, peeled and cubed

Method
1) Marinate the chicken in the red wine for at least 4 hours or best, overnight.
2) Drain the chicken. In the slow cooker pot, brown the chicken drumsticks.
3) Add the onion chutney and bay leaves. Pour back the red wine marinade. Bring to a boil so that the red wine evaporates.
4) Add in the chicken stock and ensure that the chicken is immersed. Add the potatoes and carrots.
5) Slow cook for 6 to 8 hours. Let it rest for ½ hour in the residual heat before serving. If you wish, add a tbsp of flour to thicken the sauce at the end.
6) Goes best with buttered bread or buttered brioche to mop up the juices.

Kakuni braised pork belly

As usual, I don't follow instructions to the T but improvise based on my taste preferences. Tau kee and tau pok are not japanese.

http://www.justonecookbook.com/braised-pork-belly-kakuni/

Ingredients

750g pork belly, skin still on

1 tbsp ginger, minced

1 tbsp garlic, minced

4 tbsp light soya

2 tbsp dark soya

1 cup dashi stock

4 tbsp sake

2 tbsp mirin

2 tsp sugar

1 packet tau kee

1 packet tau pok

8 hard boiled eggs, shelled

Method

1) Brown the pork belly on all sides, especially on the skin side.

2) Add the rest of the ingredients. 

3) Bring to a boil. Simmer for 2 to 4 hours. The longer you simmer, the more the fat renders out and the more gelatenous the pork belly becomes. 

4) Add the tau pok in the second last hour, and hard boiled eggs in the last hour, and tau pok in the last ½ hour.

5) Refrigerate and serve the next day after the flavour develops and skimmimg off the fat.

Chu hou chicken and peppers

Recipe from http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2014/09/braised-chu-hou-chicken-wings.html

Didn't follow exactly eg didnt add the sugar but the taste was nice, perhaps needs just a bit more salt.

Dakjjim Braised oyster sauce chicken

Original recipe is http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/dakjjim but mine is more Chinese-fied, ie less sweet. The only thing more Korean is the addition of the sweet potato starch noodles which was a good choice. I love these noodles over tang hoon which tends to break down.

Ingredients
1.2kg chicken parts
2 medium potatoes, cubed
2 medium carrots, cubed
½ onion
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp sesame seed oil
Sprinkle of sesame seeds
Dash of white pepper
150g sweet potato starch noodles
10 cups water

Method

1) In a little sesame seed oil, brown the chicken parts, then add onions, carrots and potatoes.

2) Add the sauces, pepper and water. The water should be enough to cover the chicken so use more or less as required. Bring to a boil and skim off the scum and oil. Turn down the heat to a simmer (I used a slow cooker)

3) Soak the noodles in hot water fresh off the boil for about 10 minutes till softened.

4) Add the noodles about 10 minutes from the end.

5) Splash on sesame oil and sprinkle on sesame seeds.

Braised spare ribs

I have been cooking this recipe for a year now, and only recently changed to spare ribs. I thought the flavour improved because of the bone, but this time there was no bone yet delicious because I changed a few ingredients. What a difference just putting sweet sauce instead of sugar, and adding fennel seeds and an otoshibuta make! I didn't even marinade the pork!

Updated from here: http://simmetra.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/on-my-second-attempt-success-i-adapted.html

Ingredients
1kg of belly pork
5 tbsp light soya sauce
10 tbsp dark soya sauce
3 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp ginger crushed
1 tbsp garlic crushed
1 tbsp 5 spice powder
5 cloves
4 star anise
1 cinnamon stick (i cheated using 1 tbsp cinnamon powder since I didn't have the stick version)

1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp sichuan peppercorns

1 fresh chilli (not for spiciness but for flavour, so I left it whole, not chopped)
3 tbsp sweet sauce (kechup manis)
1 tau kwa, cubed
1 packet tau pok
6 eggs

Water

Method

1) Put the spices in a stock bag. Set aside.

2) To a deep stock pot, add all the sauces, pork, condiments and spices.

3) Pour in enough water to submerge the meat. Bring to a boil and skim away fat and scum. Turn down to a simmer for 10 to 20 minutes till cooked. I find 10 minutes is enough, shorter than belly pork. Cover with otoshibuta.

4) In another pot, hard boil the eggs as preferred. Once cooked, plunge in cold water and peel. Set aside.

5) Lift the otoshibuta and add the eggs and tau kwa. Bring back to a boil and cover with otoshibuta. Turn off the flame. Cover and steep for at least 2 hours but the longer the better.

6) 10 minutes before serving, lift the ototshibuta and introduce the tau pok, then recover with otoshibuta. Don't steep this for too long or it gets too salty.

7) Serve with steamed rice, Jasmine preferred.