15 August 2026
Ingredients
- 3-4 tbsp olive oil
- 6 garlic cloves thinly sliced
- good thumb-size piece fresh root ginger peeled and shredded
- 1 bunch spring onions sliced
- 1 red chilli deseeded and thinly sliced (Optional)
- 1 ½kg beef brisket cut into large pieces
- 2 tbsp plain flour well seasoned
- 1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
- 2 star anise
- 2 tsp light muscovado sugar (or use whatever you’ve got)
- 3 tbsp Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry
- 3 tbsp dark soy sauce plus more to serve
- 500ml beef stock, a nice one, a bone broth gives a thicker stew
- Doichi (black beans) soaked in chinese cooking wine. Enough beans to cover the bottom of a small bowl, then enough wine to cover them.
- A table spoon of Doubanjiang. There’s a nice brand at Wang Long but I haven’t noticed an english name for the brand, sorry.
- steamed bok choi
- Thick wheat noodles, we get them from Wang Long, they come in a big clear package. It’s best to have thick noodles so they can be frozen with the stew without losing integrity.
Method
- Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a large fry pan. Fry the garlic, ginger, onions and chilli for 3 mins until soft and fragrant. Tip onto a plate. Toss the beef in the flour, add 1 tbsp more oil to the pan, then brown the meat in batches, adding the final tbsp oil if you need to. It should take about 5 mins to brown each batch properly.
- Add the five-spice and star anise (if using) to the pan, tip in the gingery mix, then fry for 1 min until the spices are fragrant. Add the sugar, then the beef and stir until combined. Keep the heat high, then splash in the wine or sherry, scraping up any meaty bits.
- Add everything to a pressure cooker, beef at the bottom. If you fried in the pressure cooker, make sure to clean it before cooking, as any hard stuck bits will automatically trigger the pressure cooker to turn off.
- Pour in the soy and stock (it won’t cover the meat completely). Cook for 1 hour in the pressure cooker on high, letting it depressurise naturally (not fast release). The meat should be very soft, and any sinewy bits should have melted away.
- Cook the noodles, and add them either directly to the stew (if you do, undercook by about a minute), or keep seperate. Add the bok choi to the stew while it’s still hot from pressure cooking.
- At this point you’re done! Portion up and freeze if you’d like for a long lasting meal (up to a month).
Cheeky
I like to add to the flour to coat the beef. Half a teaspoon of msg, and five spice.
Original recipe:
