Not long ago, as part of a company lunch, we were asked to bring a dish each, I went home and asked mum (as you do in these situations), she, in turn, made her signature dish and one of my favourite – Chinese soy braised beef. Everyone at work loved it and asked for the recipe. Once again, thanks to mum it is a dish that is not only tasty but as it turned out it was also easy to make, with only a handful of ingredients. Best of all, it can be prepared in advance and served either at room temperature or as a cold dish.

Chinese Soy Braised Beef

Ingredients 

- 1kg beef shank              
- 2 red onions, sliced        
- 2~3 slices of ginger
- 1 star anise
- 1½ tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 10~15g rock sugar*
- pinch of salt

*Rock sugar is used in Chinese braised dishes as it caramelises well and adds a mild sweetness to the dish. It is just crystallised sugar that is pale yellow in colour and comes in large, irregular chunks. If you aren't able to find rock sugar, any regular granular sugar will do.

Soy braised beef - ingredients.

Instructions

1. Rinse meat and then in a large pan/wok, add cooking oil and lightly sear meat over medium heat.
2. Add cold water til meat is submerged. Add dark soy sauce, soy sauce, ginger, star anise and a pinch of taste. Bring to boil.

3. Add onions and rock sugar. Cook over high heat for 10mins. Then lower heat and gently simmer for 1hr with the lid on.  

4. Remove lid and reduce remaining sauce over high heat. Keep basting the meat in the sauce.

5. Set aside to cool before slicing and serving,

3. Adding the onions and rock sugar.

4. Reduce the sauce and basting the beef.

There you have it!. Chinese soy braised beef. Accompanied with some rice and greens, there's a meal. Delicious! If you have any recipes that you would like to share, drop me a comment.

Happy Cooking!

Cocoa marble bread.

Peaceful Cuisine is one of my favourite Youtube discoveries of the year. His videos have no dialogue but all are beautifully filmed and are a pleasure to watch. I'm not much of a baker nor a vegan, but I find myself watching video after video, they are addictive and therapeutic.

Well, today was just one of those days that as I lay in bed devouring yet another one of his videos, I felt inspired, almost compelled to attempt one of his recipes and have a crack at baking. Why not? It is almost Christmas.

What You Will Need

- 300g plain flour
- 100g wholemeal flour
- 20g sugar/sweetener
- 20g coconut oil
- 15 cocoa powder (he uses cacao but I reckon you can use any powder you fancy, like Macha as well).
- 1 tsp salt
- 10g dried yeast
- 250~300ml of warm water

I won't attempt to put his steps into writing, don't think I can do it justice, so the best thing is just to watch him work his magic –

• Half or a whole avocado;
• Handful of baby spinach ( you can also use kale);
• A knob of ginger;
• 1tbs of honey; and
• 2 cups of almond milk.

* I also add the juice of half a lemon.

* All ingredients are to taste.

Blend away!

Overall, the texture of this smoothie is creamy but not heavy and the taste is quite fresh and subtle. For me a bit of extra ginger adds a bit more zing and a generous drizzle of honey gives the smoothie its sweetness (because I use unsweetened almond milk). 

This is one to keep for the recipe book!

Today's market is actually the first of an ongoing series run by Workshopped, The Office Space, the Surry Hills Creative Precinct, The Sydney Morning Herald Spectrum NOW Festival. I think if you live locally, this market is a great place to gather with a few friends and get to know your community, the local businesses and the people behind them. 

To end, on a picture perfect day, there's nothing better than enjoying the afternoon lazying in the sun, with music playing in the background and food just within reach.