Easy Chinese Braised Beef Recipe (酸菜炖牛肉)

🎉PURCHASE A CARBON STEEL WOK - 🔪 BROWSE MY KITCHENWARE - 🥢 PRINTABLE RECIPE - ❤️ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL - This is a hearty, soul-warming beef recipe - 酸菜炖牛肉. The meat is braised with pickled mustard green, which is truly the heart and soul of this recipe; it brings in a distinct and rustic charm and gives the beef a dominant fermented taste. I know it is new for many people who have never tried this ingredient, but trust me, you will fall in love with its flavor.  To braise the beef  1 lb of beef chuck 1 lb of beef femur bone 2 liters of water to blanch the beef 4-5 cups of hot water to braise the beef 1 inch of ginger, sliced thinly 3 cloves of garlic, crushed 3 scallions, cut into stalks 1/2 of a purple onion 1 cinnamon stick (Amazon Link - ) 2 cloves (Amazon Link - ) 1 tsp of fennel seed (Amazon Link - ) 1 tsp of black peppercorn (Amazon Link - ) 1 slice of dried Angelica root, AKA baizhi (白芷), optional (Amazon Link - ) 2 tbsp of Sichuan peppercorn (Amazon Link - ) To complete the soup 2.5 tbsp of oil 1 inch of ginger, sliced thinly 2 shallots, quartered 6 cloves of garlic, cut in half 5 Thai bird eye chilies, diced 5 dried red chilies, cut into short pieces (Amazon Link - ) 227g of pickled mustard green, rinsed and diced (Amazon Link - ) 1 tbsp of sichuan dou ban jiang (Amazon Link - ) 1 tbsp of soy sauce (Amazon Link - ) 1 tbsp of oyster sauce (Amazon Link - ) INSTRUCTIONS Put the beef chuck and beef bones in a big stock pot, then fill it with water. Bring it to a boil over high heat, taking 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, put the following aromatics and spices into disposable spicy bags: ginger, garlic, scallions, purple onion, cinnamon stick, cloves, black peppercorns, fennel seed, Sichuan peppercorns, and dried Angelica root (optional). Once the beef pot boils, skim off all the scum using a fine sieve.  Transfer the beef and the bones into a new, clean clay pot. Fill the clay pot with 4-5 cups of hot water or enough to immerse all the ingredients. Add the spice bags. Simmer the beef over low heat for 2.5 hours. 2.5 hours later, remove the beef from the pot and leave the broth behind. Cut the beef into bite-size pieces.  Discard the bones and the spice bag. Put the beef meat back into the clay pot. Set it aside. Rinse the pickled mustard green with running water to remove the excess salt and roughly dice it. For those who don’t have access to buy pickled mustard green, you can use Sauerkraut as a replacement. You just need to add 1 more tbsp of soy sauce in addition because Sauerkraut is a bit less salty compare to Chinese pickled mustard green.  Heat the wok over medium heat and add oil. Toss in ginger, shallot, garlic, Thai bird eye chilies, dried red chilies, and sichuan dou ban jiang. Stir for a couple of minutes.  Add the pickled mustard green, switch the heat to high, and keep stirring for a few minutes to activate the umami flavor.  Season it with 1 tbsp of oyster sauce and 1 tbsp of soy sauce. When adding the soy sauce, drizzle it from the side of the wok; the heat will help to create a complex aroma.  Last, pour in the beef along with all the broth. Bring it to a simmer and let it cook for 10 minutes so everything can mingle together. We don’t want to braise the mustard green for too long; otherwise, you will lose the crunchy texture.