Sweet Soy Braised Beef

This recipe is heavily inspired by Korean flavours, more specifically the popular beef bulgogi. The modern bulgogi most of us know of is a dish made up of thinly sliced beef marinated in soy sauce, sugar, garlic, green onion, sesame oil and pear. I wanted to use these flavours, but instead, make a braised shredded version.

The main ingredient in this dish is actually time. Beef shank is a cut of meat that needs to be cooked low and slow, to make it tender enough to eat. Cook it fast and it’ll be chewy and quite hard to bite through. Using this cut of beef brings heft and beefiness to the dish as the bone and marrow are still attached. This helps the final texture and flavour of the dish to become something honestly special.

When I tested this recipe I ate it with rice, and I think it’s the perfect pairing for it, but, it would also go really well as a taco, with a charred green onion salsa. The final dish is slightly sweet, beefy, fatty and has loads of umami. Making a slightly acidic salsa would help cut those flavours and the texture making it a fresher dish- not traditional in any sense, but would taste amazing.

serves: 1-2 people

prep/cooking time: 3-3.5 hours

Ingredients

400g beef shank (with marrow and bone)

1 large brown onion, peeled and cut into quarters

thumb-size piece of fresh ginger, sliced in half lengthwise

4 big cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 tsp gochujang

1/4 cup (62g) soy sauce

1 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tbsp rice vinegar

3 tsp mirin

1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 of an asian pear, grated finely

1 spring onion, sliced finely, to garnish

1 tsp toasted sesame seeds, to garnish

salt, water, oil

Method

1. Pat dry and season both sides of the beef with a generous amount of salt.

2. In an oiled pot on high heat, sear both sides of the beef until golden, remove and set aside on a plate.

3. Add the onion, ginger, garlic, black pepper, gochujang into the pot along with 2 tbsp worth of water, and scrape all the bits stuck to the pot. Let the water evaporate and the veggies gain a bit of colour.

4. In a small bowl, mix; soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, mirin, and sesame oil.

5. Add the seared meat back into the pot, along with the soy sauce mixture, grated pear and enough water to just about cover everything. Bring it to a boil, add a lid on and bring the heat down to low. Simmer for 2.5-3 hours or until the meat becomes super tender and literally starts falling off the bone.

6. When the meat is ready, take it out and place it on a clean plate. Strain the sauce into a pan and discard the veggies. Using forks, shred the meat and add it back into the sauce, discarding any fatty pieces and the bone.

7. Bring the heat up to high and let the sauce boil and reduce until thick and glossy. It should nicely coat the shredded meat. Garnish with spring onion and sesame seeds. Serve hot with rice or whatever else.