I have been experimenting on this dish for quite a while to get the perfect authentic taste of Hong Kong. And trust me, this recipe is a keeper!
Hong Kong Chu Hou Braised Brisket (with/without tendon), 港式炆牛腩 or 港式焖牛腩, is a popular Cantonese Dish, made with Chu Hou(柱侯) Sauce, that one must definitely eat when in Hong Kong. It is a one dish meal with beef, carrot, radish and the ultra flavorful sauce goes so well with both rice or Hong Kong Noodle (Wanton Noodle). Remember to prepare extra rice to go with the sauce! Kids and adults love this dish so much!
Making this dish is very easy. And ordering the ingredients from HonestBee via ShopBack makes it even easier and I get to save more on my groceries with cashback from ShopBack.
ShopBack is Singapore’s leading cashback online platform where one can save more from the cashback on groceries, electronic, appliances, food delivery, etc.
I was invited by ShopBack to try their platform and since lazy me always order from ingredients online from HonestBee or Redmart, I might as well just give it a try.
To my surprise, ordering from Honestbee Via ShopBack is a breeze and I get some rebates off my online shopping.
Just select Honestbee or any other merchants on Shopback App or from their website https://www.shopback.sg and it directly linked me to the selected merchant site. After which, I just proceed to order whatever I need as usual.
s what, the cashback is almost immediate! Just upon receiving the order confirmation from Honestbee, I received another email from Shopback to indicate the pending cashback amount from my purchase
Also, once get to their at store page on Shopback, you can first look out for other deals from many stores available at Shopback. Not only you can save more on groceries during Honestbee promotions, you can also save on kitchen appliances with Shopee promo codes or deals from Aliexpress
You can find out more about how to use it from this link : http://www.shopback.sg/how-it-works
Anyway back to the recipe…
Heat a pot/deep pan under medium heat and toast the spices and herbs (cinnamon, star anise, bay leaves and orange peel) until fragrance. Dried orange peel can be purchase from any medicinal shop.
Add in oil and throw in spring onions, ginger, garlic and saute until fragrant
Add in cubed beef and sear until the outer layer of the beef is cooked. If adding tendon, start cooking the tendon in a separate boiling water an hour half earlier before u start cooking this dish as tendon takes longer to cook. Drained and add in together with the beef cubes at this stage.
After searing, add in all the seasonings
and stir fry in the seasonings into the beef cubes.
The Nan Ru used in this recipe is the red ones from Shanghai
Add in rice wine, water and bring it to boil. Then lower the heat to medium low, cover with lid and allow it to simmer for 2 hours or until the beef and tendon (if using) soften
Stir and check occassionally to ensure that the beef is not sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add more water if required.
Half an hour before the beef is ready (i.e. one and half hour into cooking; add in the radish and carrot) and continue to simmer.
The sauce should thicken when the beef if ready. If the sauce is too diluted, turn up the heat and allow the water to evaporate to the consistency and taste you preferred.
Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with lots of chopped spring onions. Serve with rice or noodles.
For Pressure Cooking Method
Follow the steps as per the stove-top method, with alteration to the following:
- Use 100ml of rice wine and 200ml of water instead
- Ensure that the alcohol in the rice wine is totally evaporated before activating the pressure cooker in pressured mode.
- Cooking time in pressure cooker is 1 hr if no tendon is used
- With tendon, you can opt to cook the tendon an hour earlier before in boiling water, then add into the pressure cooker with the beef or you can opt to throw in the uncooked tendon together with the beef into the pressure cooker and extend the cooking time to 1.5 hours or until the tendon soften; the latter might result in a softer beef that will be easily broken.
- Add the carrot together with the beef ; will be softer but save the trouble of adding later in the pressure cooker.
- Cook using high pressure or for automatic pressure cooker, use the beef setting or equivalent.
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- 20g Sliced Ginger
- 30g Spring Onions (Each part cut into about 10 cm in length)
- 1 tablespoon Minced Garlic
- 3 pieces Star Anise
- 4g Dried Orange Peel
- 3 pieces Bay Leaves
- 1 piece Cinnamon Bark
- 500g Beef Brisket (Cube; can replace with Chuck or other part of the beef)
- 100g Tendon (Optional)
- 200ml Rice Wine
- 1 litre Water (more if required)
- 200g White Radish (cubed)
- 100g Carrot (cubed)
- 2 tablespoon Chu Hou Sauce
- 1 piece Nan Ru (preserved beancurd)
- 1 tablespoon Peanut Butter
- 1 tablespoon Sugar
- ¼ teaspoon Five Spices Powder
- 1 tsp Dark Soya Sauce
- Chopped Spring Onions
- Heat a pot/deep pan under medium heat and toast the herbs (cinnamon, star anise, bay leaves and orange peel) until fragrance.
- Add in oil and saute in spring onions, ginger, garlic until fragrant
- Add in cubed beef and sear until the outer layer of the beef is cooked. *If adding tendon, start cooking the tendon in separate pot of boiling water an hour half earlier as tendon takes longer to cook. Drained and add in together with the beef cubes at this stage.
- After searing, add in all the seasonings and stir fry together with the beef
- Add in rice wine, water and bring it to boil.
- When boiled, lower the heat to medium low, cover with lid and allow it to simmer for 2 hours or until the beef and tendon (if using) soften
- Stir and check occassionally to ensure that the beef is not sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add more water if required.
- Half an hour before the beef is ready (i.e. one and half hour into cooking; add in the radish and carrot) and continue to simmer.
- The sauce should thicken when the beef if ready. If the sauce is too diluted, turn up the heat and allow the water to evaporate to the consistency and taste you preferred.
- Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with lots of chopped spring onions.
- Serve with rice or noodles.
Follow the steps as per the stove-top method, with alteration to the following:
Use 100ml of rice wine and 200ml of water instead
Ensure that the alcohol in the rice wine is totally evaporated before activating the pressure cooker in pressured mode.
Cooking time in pressure cooker is 1 hr if no tendon is used
With tendon, you can opt to cook the tendon an hour earlier before in separate pot of boiling water, then add into the pressure cooker with the beef or you can opt to throw in the uncooked tendon together with the beef into the pressure cooker and extend the cooking time to 1.5 hours or until the tendon soften; the latter might result in a softer beef that will be easily broken.
Add the carrot together with the beef ; will be softer but save the trouble of adding later in the pressure cooker.
Cook using high pressure or for automatic pressure cooker, use the beef setting or equivalent.