Chinese Beef Stew with Shitake Mushroom and Radish

My camera ran out of battery, took this with my camera instead :P

I got lucky at the grocery last Sunday! :) I was able to get half kilo of kien-chi also called beef shin, woot! woot! :) usually, to get beef shin, you need to be really really early at the supermarket because they sell really fast! Originally, I was thinking of cooking beef soup with radish.. but then a better idea floated in my head when I was about to boil it for soup. so what I cooked was- Beef shin stew with shitake mushroom and radish: 

A bit tedious to prepare but soooo worth it, goes well with puto.

Ingredients:

500 grams of Beef shin, sliced into cubes (2 - 3 inch cubes)

1 pc. raddish. cut into pieces.

6 pcs shitake mushroom (soak in hot water to soften, remove stem and slice each of the mushroom into 4 pcs, you can set aside some of the water used to soften for added flavor)

5 tbsp.oil

2 tbsp. chopped garlic

5 cm. cube of ginger

1.5 star anise

2 large onions

10-12 whole black peppercorns

3 tbsp. dark soy sauce

3 tbsp. light soy sauce

2 tbsp. sugar (I use brown sugar, if you're like me, you want to increase the sugar to 4 tbsp. because I so love it sweet)

1 tsp. salt

2.5 cups of water

Steps:

1. Heat oil, medium heat

2. Add in Onion, garlic, and ginger, cook until onion is light brown

3. Add beef shin, stir fry for a few minutes, until beef is cooked and light brown.

4. Add 2.5 cups of water, shitake mushroom, star anise, peppercorns, soy sauce, sugar, and salt

5. Change to low heat when it boils and cook for 2 hours or more.

6. Add radish, cook for 15 more minutes.

Fin! :)

Braised Beef a.k.a Nilagang Baka

Ingredients: 

1.5 Kilo of beef stew or beef shin cut into small 2-3 inch cubes

2 Medium onions sliced thinly

1 Small Cabbage;shred into big pieces; remove the cord.

3 Medium carrots peeled and cut in 2 in. pieces

4 Medium potatoes peeled and quartered

2 Sweet corn (cut into several segments)

Water for braising

8 Whole peppercorns

1 Tbs. Salt

½ Tbs. MSG(optional)

Steps: 

1. Place beef in a large soup pot 

2. Cover with water about 2 inches above the meat. 

3. In high heat, bring it to a boil. 

4. Remove the scum

5. Add onions and lower the heat to medium high. 

6. Cover and let simmer for 15 minutes. 

7. Add salt, MSG and whole peppercorns. 

8. Cover and cook for 1½ hours.

9. Add water if necessary to maintain the 2 inch water level above the meat. 

** For healthier option, you can leave this in the ref overnight to let the oil of the meat rise. remove the oil the next day.

10. Bring to a slow boil, add corn, carrots and potatoes. 

11. Cover and cook for an additional 15 minutes or until carrots, corn, and potatoes are done. 

12. Add cabbage last, cover, and let it cook for 2-3 more minutes. 

13. Add salt to adjust taste