Five Spice Beef

Photo: flickr user avlxyz

Ingredients

1 pound beef shin (gravy beef) in

round piece with no cuts

1 cup light soy sauce

1 cup water

1 tablespoon sugar

1 knob fresh ginger - (walnut-size) peeled and smashed

2 garlic cloves peeled, left whole

2 scallions

2 tablespoons five-spice powder or mixed spices wrappe

Preparation

Bring all the ingredients for the simmering sauce to a boil in a pot large enough to hold the piece of beef. Place the beef in the pot, and bring the sauce back to boil. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 2 hours.

Remove the beef and chill in the refrigerator for at least several hours, or preferably overnight.

Thinly slice and serve as a cold appetizer.

This recipe yields 8 to 10 servings.

Comments: Another name for this dish is red-stewed beef. The technique of stewing is recorded in texts surviving from the Zhou dynasty (1050-249 BC). In fact, bamboo slips itemizing food, seasonings and cooking methods found recently in archeological diggings, clearly indicate that keng (stew) was the main food in China from antiquity to the Han period (202 BC-AD 220). Keng was the forerunner of the method referred to today as red-stewed or red-cooked.