Braised Sesame Oil & Ginger Beef

Braised Sesame Oil & Ginger Beef

I still have at least half a bottle of top-quality sesame oil to finish and our days in Modena are numbered as you know. I therefore had the idea to make a big pot of Braised Sesame Oil & Ginger Beef and the result was given the unanimous full thumbs-up by the children. Boy, no dish could be easier to prepare nor to please.

And I prepared it as I was getting ready for Babinette's belated 8th Birthday bash. Which was really more of a big play date, with 8 screaming girl guests and a crying Babinou trailing behind because the girls "were not kind" to him. Poor darling.

Babinette blowing her birthday candle

Once again, I tried to liquidate my food stock with the party. I came up with : Chocolate Brownies (en guise de birthday cake), fried Prawn Crackers with sweet and sour dip, Almond Jelly with canned Lychees, sweets, pretzels, raw vegetable platter, home-made butter popcorn, lemonade...

Now, I'm back to packing - until I have something else to liquidate.

Braised Sesame Oil & Ginger Beef :

1 kg piemontese braising beef (chopped into large cubes)

flour for coating them lightly with

1 large onion (chopped)

4 garlic cloves (chopped)

1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger (julienned)

50ml toasted sesame oil

150ml light soy sauce

150ml chinese rice wine

50ml chinese or japanese rice vinegar

3 dried bird's eye chillies (crushed into flakes)

1 tsp ground black pepper

250ml* beef stock

toasted sesame seeds for garnishing

Using a heavy-bottom pot fry the ginger and garlic in the sesame oil till fragrant.

Add the onions and the lightly-floured beef cubes.

Sprinkle the chilli and pepper over the browned beef.

Pour in the soy sauce, rice wine and rice vinegar and coat the beef cubes in them.

Pour in the beef stock, enough to cover the meat*. Cover the pot and simmer for about 2-3 hours or till the meat is tender. Adjust the seasoning if necessary (e.g. add more soy sauce, wine etc).

Garnish with toasted sesame seeds before serving. I served the meat over white jasmine rice and topped it with a runny fried egg. On another day, I served it with ginger and garlic fried rice and it was yummy too!