so at Vika welcome to hot Thai kitchen I
am making beef stew today because it's
fall and it's cold and we all need
comfort food during times such as this
so I am making a Thai style beef stew or
what we call Newton
now that means beef and that means to
stew
but unlike western style beef stew it
doesn't come in a rich thick sauce it's
actually beef that stood in a broth
infused with a ton of spices it's so
good and you can actually pour it over
noodles and turn it into a noodle soup
oh so good let's get started let's talk
cut of beef I am using my all-time
favorite cut of beef or beef stew and
that is the super digital flexor muscle
pachinko as an incredibly impressive
name at the store it was labeled Digital
muscle but basically it's the part of
the hind leg sort of like here and
what's great about it is I'm going to
show you it is full of connective tissue
and see all this marbling of all this
connective tissue that is going to
dissolve and become sort of silky smooth
and making the stew just basically melt
in your mouth for this one I'm going to
go about an inch thick because they will
shrink quite a bit you can also do beef
shank the whole shank like the osso
bucco cut if you can't find this you can
also just use stew beef which is usually
the chuck or the round but I if you can
this makes a big difference so I'm going
to first sear the beef and this step is
actually not very Thai and borrowing it
from western style technique in Thailand
we just throw everything in the pot but
I think the searing developed some
colour on the beef and it actually helps
boost the flavor so I'm just salting it
a little bit on both sides I've got a
pot here which is the pot I'm going to
use for the stew so a little bit of oil
in here wait for it to get quite hot
because you want a good sear good
browning don't crowd the pan if you
crowd the pan you trap steam and you
won't get that nice browning so you're
going to have to do this in
okay once you place the beef down don't
move it give it a good 1 minute maybe 45
seconds for it to develop a chance to
see your view toss it and sir it and
mess with it it won't have a long enough
contact time to develop brownie so don't
touch it for a while all right so all my
beef is seared now with the pot you
don't have to wash and start clean if
you've burnt it though and you've got
burnt bits stuck to the pot that's when
you want to scrub it off mine had a
little burn bits on it so I scrapped
that off in fact if you have just
lightly browned bits just pour off the
excess oil and leave all that stuff in
there that's all flavor that you want
dissolved back into the soup and then
all this juice just pour it in that's
just extra extra flavor okay so now I'm
going to add my liquid and I've
basically got some plain beef stock here
and by plain beef stock
I mean I took some beef bones and I
simmered it in water for three hours no
aromatics no nothing because all the
aromatics are going to go in right now
with the stew you can also use
store-bought beef stock
although make sure it's unsalted because
we're going to we want to maximize the
flavor of this with all the seasoning
that we're going to add a knot with pre
salted beef stock right so I recommend
highly making your own beef stock for
this one okay all right now I'm going to
add some seasoning to this so that the
beef could simmer and absorb all the
flavor so I've got some soy sauce and
I'm using Thai mushroom soy sauce but
you can use regular soy sauce you want
some golden Mountain sauce which is a
different kind of soy sauce a little
richer different flavor moister sauce
rich thickness with a little sweetness
black soy sauce has a deep flavor of
molasses but it'll make the broth a nice
dark color to cut all that salt we just
added I'm going to do some sugar but I'm
adding dark brown sugar today because I
like that rich flavor that it has now
I'm going to let this come to a simmer
and while that's going let's put
together the spice bag now this is going
to be the star of the dish this is where
all the flavor and the aroma is going to
come
so I'm going to put all my spices in
this back here which I got at the
Chinese grocery store and I think it was
called soup bag or something like that
but basically if I put all the spices in
here when it's done I can just take the
whole thing out I don't have to fish
them out you can do the same thing just
tie all the bags tie all the spices in a
cheesecloth or something like that
got my coriander seeds some cinnamon
star anis too much darn is really
unpleasant so just do maximum of two
pieces couple of bay leaves a mixture of
black and white pepper which I've
cracked the next two are optional goji
berries now you may have heard of goji
berries as being this superfood not a
whole lot in terms of flavor in Chinese
cuisine they use it in to to infuse into
soups and stew because of its health
benefits again another optional one is
such one peppercorns when it's way too
big for the amount that I have in here
but that's okay so the Bevis has
simmered for just not too long but
already there's foam coming up so I'm
just before I add in my spice bag I'm
just going to use this incredibly useful
tool this fine mesh skimmer here to
remove all this foam okay so in goes my
shocking mushrooms and dry socket
mushrooms have this great flavor that
adds a lot of umami to the broth and
goes the onions hopefully it's like a
splash on me so I have to go in gently
ah like that garlic and then the spice
back I'm just gonna sort of let it hang
out in here oh I knew that bag looked a
little empty there are two more things
going into that bag I've got galangal
and ginger and I these are frozen so
that's why I kept in the freezer because
if frozen galangal ginger sits out at
room temperature they sort of turn mushy
and the ginger gives it a little sort of
spiciness and the galangal gives that
cool pine forest tea aroma it's nice yin
and yang flavor to go in here so many
things
okay and I'm going to close the lid and
this little thing here I'm going to tie
it to the pot handle so that it doesn't
hang over the side and then catch fire
and then it's all bad news from there so
I'm going to let this simmer for three
hours until the beef is super tender and
melt in your mouth I'll see you then
so it's been three hours the beef is
fork tender I love it I love stews it's
like put it on let it go you come back
and it's delicious so I'm going to
remove the spice bag there and then this
the way we eat it in Thailand is with
some jasmine rice or you can pour this
over some rice noodles if you want so
I'm just going to so you keep you can
see the beef has shrunken quite a bit so
that's why you want to make sure you cut
the beef quite thick because they do
shrink alright I'm going to pour this
over rice so when the onion is dissolved
the garlic is dissolved now mmm add a
little freshness with some green onions
and cilantro and you don't have to do
this but I like to put a little bit of
chili vinegar so this is just spur
chillies or any kind of Chili's really
pickled in vinegar for at least 20
minutes and the acidity contrast sort of
the salty sweetness quite well my mom
looks to put a lot of this stuff but I
just like a little sprinkling Oh smell
of the spices mmm wow you almost don't
have to chew it it's so tender such a
great cut for beef stew and a little
salty a little sweet everything just
works so well and I really prefer this
to the rich saucy stew because even
though it's rich and comforting it
doesn't feel heavy feeling you can
really eat a lot of this which might be
a little dangerous but perfect dish for
the fall this coming winter so I hope
you give this a try it's so easy if
you've got a slow cooker this is perfect
for it and the recipe as always on hot
side kitchen comm when you make it send
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next finish this time ile super digital
flexor muscle super or is a super
digital flexor or super flexor digital
muscle super flex our digital muscle
okay super digital flexor hey