We ate this in those funny days between Christmas and New Year when you’re fed up eating but still feel you need to make the most of the time you have to cook. We’d had enough of leftovers and were craving spicy food, like this spicy beef stew, which is more like a soup, but with lots of sustenance. The recipe is from Our Korean Kitchen by Jordan Bourke & Rejina Pyo, probably our most used book this year. Serve with some sticky rice.
Spicy beef & vegetable stew – serves 4
- 400g beef brisket
- 1 onion, quartered
- 10 cloves of garlic, 6 left whole and 4 crushed
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 150g shitake mushrooms, sliced
- 1 leek, halved and thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp roasted sesame seed oil
- 3 tbsp gochugaru red pepper powder
- 1½ tsp sea salt
- 10 scallions, halved lengthways, then cut into 6cm strips
- cooked rice, to serve
Put the brisket into a large pot and cover with 3 litres of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and add the onion and 6 whole garlic cloves. Simmer for 2 hours with the lid off, remove any scum that comes to the top and add water as needed to ensure the beef is submerged.
Transfer the brisket to a plate and set aside to cool. Strain the stock through a sieve into a jug, and discard the flavouring ingredients. When the brisket is cool enough to handle, tear it into bite-sized pieces, discarding any fat.
In the same pan, heat the vegetable oil over a medium heat, then add the mushrooms and leek and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the beef, soy sauce, crushed garlic, sesame seed oil and gochugaru powder. Turn up the heat and fry for a couple of minutes until aromatic. Pour 1.3 litres of the beef stock into the pan (freeze the rest for another dish). Add the salt and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat a bit and add the scallions. Simmer for 3 minutes, then serve in bowls with some rice if you like.
(Original recipe from Our Korean Kitchen by Jordan Bourke and Rejina Pyo, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2015.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 