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Asian-braised Shin of Beef with Hot and Sour Shredded Salad

The point of a stew, it should go without saying, is its flavour rather than its form. So, while the crunchy salad strips of carrot, spring onion and pepper do bring colour and beauty to this otherwise brown study, at the same time their texture and Asian-flavoured bite provide the perfect partner for the rich, aromatic spiciness of the soft-braised stew.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice wine and fish sauce share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 41 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 6
Prep30 min

Ingredients

Contains: soy, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 160°C (320°F). Peel and thinly slice the onions, slice the ginger, and crush the garlic. Pat the beef dry and cut into large chunks if it is not already in pieces.

  2. Heat the vegetable oil in a large casserole over medium-high heat. Brown the beef on all sides in batches, about 10 minutes per batch, then set aside.

  3. Lower the heat to medium, add the onions and cook for 8 minutes until soft. Add the ginger, garlic and ground coriander and cook for 1 minute, stirring.

  4. Pour in the Chinese cooking wine (or dry sherry) and rice wine, scraping up the browned bits. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark brown sugar, cinnamon and star anise, and simmer for 3 minutes.

  5. Return the beef to the pot, pour in the beef stock and bring to a simmer. Cover with a lid and transfer to the oven for 3 hours, until the beef is fork-tender and the thickest part reaches at least 145°F (63°C).

  6. Rest the beef for 3 minutes. Meanwhile, skim the fat from the sauce, simmer it on the hob for 10 minutes to thicken, then remove the cinnamon and star anise.

  7. Cut the carrots into fine matchsticks or shreds. Slice the spring onions thinly. Deseed and thinly slice the red and green chillies. Pick the coriander leaves, keeping the stalks finely chopped.

  8. Make the dressing by mixing the juice of the lime, Thai fish sauce and caster sugar with a splash of water. Toss with the carrots, spring onions, chillies and coriander, and leave for 5 minutes.

  9. Shred or pull the beef into large pieces and serve with the sauce spooned over, alongside the hot and sour shredded salad.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Rice wine + fish saucetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Ginger + coriandertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,504 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Onion + beeftop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Garlic + coriandertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, ginger, garlic, wine, sauce, sugar, beef):

  1. Cuminabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Corianderthe original
  3. Rosemaryabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Cinnamonabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, ginger, garlic, wine, sauce, sugar, beef. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).