Ingredients

• 2 onions
• peeled
• quartered
• 5cm/2in piece fresh root ginger
• peeled
• sliced
• 4 garlic cloves
• peeled
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 250ml/9fl oz Chinese cooking wine (or dry sherry)
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 2 litres/3½ pints beef stock
• preferably organic
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 star anise
• 3.5kg/7½lb beef shin
• on the bone
• cut by the butcher into thick slices (or 1kg/2¼lb beef shin off the bone
• cut into large cubes)
• 3 carrots
• peeled
• cut into matchsticks
• 4 spring onions
• cut into matchsticks
• 1 long red chilli
• seeds removed
• cut into matchsticks
• 1 long green chilli
• seeds removed
• cut into matchsticks
• 20g/¾oz bunch fresh coriander
• finely chopped
• 1 lime
• juice only
• 4 tbsp Thai fish sauce
• 1 tsp caster sugar

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.
• For the beef
• blend the onions
• ginger
• garlic and coriander in a food processor until well combined and finely chopped.
• Heat the oil in a large casserole or ovenproof frying pan and fry the mixture over a medium heat
• stirring regularly
• until soft and beginning to catch in the pan; this should take about 10 minutes.
• Pour in the Chinese wine (or sherry) and let it bubble up. Add the soy sauce
• brown sugar
• stock
• oyster sauce and rice wine vinegar and bring to a boil
• then drop in the cinnamon sticks and star anise.
• Add the pieces of beef shin and let everything come up to a bubble again
• then clamp on a lid and put into the oven for 2 hours (or longer if using regular stewing steak).
• Take the casserole carefully out of the oven and
• using a slotted spatula
• remove the beef to an ovenproof dish. Cover with foil and keep warm in the oven while you vigorously boil the sauce in the casserole (or pan) on the hob
• without a lid
• until it has reduced by about half.
• For the salad
• combine all the julienned vegetables and the chopped coriander in a bowl.
• For the salad dressing
• mix the lime juice
• fish sauce and caster sugar in another bowl and dress the vegetables with this.
• To serve
• arrange the beef on a serving platter and pour the reduced sauce over the meat. If you are using cubes of stewing steak
• rather than slices of shin
• you’d probably do better to use a deeper dish. Dress the top of the beef with the hot and sour shredded salad.