Infusing traditional Chinese herbs and ingredients into a quintessentially French beef bourguignon, she hopes to change mindsets that TCM herbs are too unpleasant-tasting and overpowering for daily cooking.
TCM herbs are easily accessible these days, even for a non-Chinese speaker with more Traditional Chinese Medicinal halls catering to a younger, modern market. Take your list in romanised Chinese (like in the recipe below) to TCM retail outlets like ZTP or Eu Yan Sang, and staff there will not only be able to help you pick out the herbs, they'll also give you advice on the medicinal benefits and tips to prepare them.
In the recipe, you’ll also see the purported benefits of the TCM herbs that the chef has chosen to create a dish that is wholesome, healing and nourishing.
Serves 4-6
1.5 kilograms Toriyama Wagyu shoulder clod
800 grams brown onions
60 milliliters sesame oil
240 milliliters Shaoxing wine
480 milliliters Chinese rice wine
3 Tablespoons Cincalok
2 Tablespoons shallot oil (or neutral cooking oil)
60 grams Ang Chow (Chinese red rice wine)
1 litre brown chicken stock or beef stock
1 head garlic
30 grams ginger
10 grams salt
2 grams fine black pepper
5 grams chuan siong (invigorates blood and expels wind)
8 grams dang gui (tonifies and regulates blood)
12 grams gan cao/liquorice root (clears heat and toxicity)
7 grams dangshen (stimulates a poor appetite)
40 grams honey dates (a natural sweetener high in iron)
10 grams bei qi (promotes skin regeneration)
35 grams ren shen (calming and strengthens the stomach)
10 grams chen pi/dried orange peel (dissolves phlegm and relieves coughs)
15 grams xing ren (stops coughs and promotes bowel movements)
10 grams yuzhu (nourishes the lungs and stomach)
20 milliliters mirin
Method
1. Trim the sinew and fat, then cut the beef into cubes.
2. Combine oils and fat from the trimmings and bring them to heat in the pressure cooker.
3. Dry beef cubes with paper towel, and season with salt and pepper.
4. Sear beef in the heated beef fat for 4 mins till well browned.
5. Remove and set aside.
6. Sweat onions in oil that was used to sear beef for about 10mins till onions turn translucent.
7. Add ginger and garlic and sweat them for about 5 mins till aroma releases.
8. Add beef back into pressure cooker, add cincalok and angchow, and quickly fry it till well combined.
9. Deglaze the pressure cooker with combination of Shaoxing and rice wine till alcohol is burned off.
10. Add mirin.
11. Rinse herbs and put into a sachet or wrap in a cheesecloth, then add to pressure cooker.
12. Fill up with stock.
13. Put lid of pressure cooker on and cook for 30 mins.
14. After 30 mins, strain cooking liquid and remove the fat/oil layer (the cooking liquid will become the sauce) .
15. Reduce sauce to saucing consistency.
16. Serve with a side of mashed potatoes and stir-fried Kailan.