China · Home-style
Beef Brisket with Tomato
Beef brisket stewed slowly with tomatoes until the broth is thick, sweet and sharp at once and the meat gives way under a chopstick.
Roasting the tomatoes first, over a flame until the skins split and peel away, is what separates this from every other tomato and beef stew. It concentrates the fruit and takes away that raw, watery note that turns people off the dish. A pressure cooker cuts the long stewing time almost in half, and once the meat is tender the tomatoes only need a few minutes.
Ingredients
- tomatoes200 g
- beef brisket500 g
- cooking oilExact
Directions
- 1
Cut the brisket into strips and then into 2 cm cubes, put them in cold water, boil for 2 minutes to remove the bloody liquid, then lift out and rinse clean.
- 2
In another pot bring 2 litres of water to the boil and add 2 lengths of leek, 2 slices of ginger, star anise and 5 to 10 ml yellow wine, then the blanched beef. Cover and stew, 1 hour in a clay pot or 45 minutes on the pressure cooker's stew setting; when a chopstick goes through easily it is done.
- 3
Peel the tomatoes: score a cross from the top to the waist, push a chopstick or fork in through the stem end, and hold over a low gas flame, turning constantly and lifting it down often to check. Once the skin splits, pull it away and cut the tomato up, as small as you can manage.
- 4
Heat the oil in a pan to about 70 percent hot, add 10 g each of leek and ginger, add the tomatoes and fry them through until they turn red, then add the cooked brisket and its broth, just enough to come level with the beef.
- 5
Season with salt, sugar and light soy sauce to taste and cover.
- 6
Once it boils, keep it over high heat and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes.
- 7
When the sauce is of medium thickness, turn off the heat, scatter over chopped scallion and serve.
Source: HowToCook · WorldBite adaptation · Unlicense source text; bilingual recipe adapted by WorldBite.