Serves
Ingredients
700g beef casserole steak eg blade or skirt steak
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/4 cup rice wine
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons grated ginger
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
2 teaspoons grated lemongrass (available in jars at the supermarket)
2 tablespoons oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced
250g button mushrooms, sliced
2 cups beef stock
1/4 cup roasted peanuts, finely chopped.
Method
Preheat oven to 160 C or set up your slow cooker. Chop the beef into 3 cm chunks and place in a shallow container with the rice wine, fish and soy sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger and five spice. Refrigerate for several hours or even overnight.
Heat oil in a frying pan and gently cook onion, carrots and celery until just tender. Transfer the vegetables to a casserole or slow cooker. Increase the heat and brown the meat in batches, adding to the casserole/slow cooker. Finally brown the mushrooms. Add remaining marinade ingredients and beef stock to and cook in the oven for 2 1/2 hours or in the slow cooker on high for 5 hours. Stir though the chopped peanuts if using or alternativley thicken or reduce sauce.
Serve with steamed rice, coriander leaves and steamed greens.
You have to be careful here as the sizing isn’t consistent amongst manufacturers. People who tend to overpack their personal effects are always caught up in this dilemma. Backpacks come in a variety of designs, forms, shapes and colors.
At which stage is the lemongrass added? There’s no mention of it in the method.
This looks great, I use my slow cooker a lot over winter and had not thought of an Asian-styled stew – normally going for a curry or hearty style casserole – Is it necessary to brown everything off before putting in the cooker? I am normally throwing everything in quickly in the morning and could do without the hassle – but does it lose a vital element if I chuck it all in, skipping this step?
This recipe sounds great but I agree with Hannah. I think of slow cooking as hassle free and spending as little time as possible preparing the ingredients. I will try the recipe without the browning and see how it goes!
I have experimented with browning and not browning of the meat etc and the conclusion I have come to is this:
Cooking for at least 9-10 hours in the slow cooker is the secret to not noticing whether the browning step is done or not.
Hannah, I do understand that it is easier to just throw things in an cook but I do like meat that has been browned and also think that flavours develop more intensely if the vegetables are gently cooked off first as well. I know that most people don’t do this so it is just a personal preference.
I certainly agree, browning make it much more tastier, and I alway brown the meat, be it chicken,beef or lamb,before putting in the slow cooker.. You will notice the difference in taste ….might take a little longer, but cant beat it!!!!!!!!!!!