Foreword
Departing from festival-themed creations, I am going to present an easier, less complex recipe of a favorite food item of mine - the brisket. In NYC, it is easy to find this though it often exists in the form of the Southern barbecued variety. Braised brisket, specifically the Cantonese style, is rather hard to find. And even the shops which carry this item, colloquially named as 炆牛腩, do not do a decent job with it. The beef is usually too rough or not flavorful enough. And so, I decide to take on creating this myself.
As mentioned in my post on the dimsum lunch at Peninsula, I draw inspiration for my rendition of the braised brisket by incorporating a lot of Chinese celery in the base. The Chinese celery is thinner, slimmer and has more leaves than its Western counterpart. Flavor-wise, it has a woodier taste and the anise flavor is more muted. This goes well in the stock and so I will base my braise around this vegetable. In addition, contrary to the traditional Cantonese braise, I will not be using Chu Hou Paste (柱候醬), but rather, "clear soup" as the name suggests.
A word on the brisket - There are many different cuts. Without specification, restaurants usually serve the bottom part, also called lam dai (腩底). This is the cheapest, and also the toughest, cut, located between the brisket and the skin. Then there is the skirt steak, also called bung sa lam (崩沙腩) or song lam (爽腩). Located between the diaphragm and the belly, this cut is very tender and is usually the most expensive. Finally, there is the boneless short rib, also called hang lam (坑腩). The Cantonese dialect for this roughly translates to "the brisket with trenches". This is rather aptly named, as this cut is essentially the short rib with all the rib bones removed, leaving trenches-like holes punctuating the meat. Personally, I have a huge liking for hang lam. And so, that would be the cut of the brisket I will use for the braise.
Ingredients
- 2.5 pounds of boneless short rib (坑腩). This is good for serving five people.
- 3 stalks of scallions
- 1 generous knob of ginger
- 2 whole garlic, peeled and diced
- 2 whole shallots, peeled and diced
- 3 stalks of cilantro
- 10 full stalks of Chinese celery (芹菜)
- 5 bay leaves
- 1 piece of dried mandarin peel (陳皮)
- 3 entire cloves of star anise
- 1.5 tablespoons of white peppercorns
- 1.5 tablespoons of Sichuan peppercorns (花椒)
- 1 liter of unsalted veal stock
- 1 liter of unsalted chicken stock
- Dried rice flour noodle, hor fun (河粉). Can substitute with noodles of liking, including vermicelli. Typically, a portion of dried noodles is around 50 grams.
- Chinese cooking wine
- Salt and Pepper
Prep
- Slice the 3 stalks of scallions and retain the white stem parts. Set aside.
- Cut the ginger in slices and reserve two pieces. Set aside.
- Take one full stalk of Chinese celery and remove all the leaves. Then dice the stalk finely. Set aside.
- Cut the cilantro in bite-sized segments. Be mindful not to cut the leaves twice or they would be bruised.
- Reserve 4 cloves of garlic. Finely dice the rest of the garlic and shallots. You can cheat using a food processor. Then deep fry them until they are golden brown and crispy. Remove excess oil with paper towels and set aside.
- Rehydrate as much noodles as you want in enough water. The water level should cover all the noodles. Set aside for use later.
Cook
- Bring a pot of water to a vigorous boil. Add in the two slices of ginger and three stalks of scallions. Liberally salt the water in the process.
- Blanch the beef brisket for around 10 minutes in the boiling water. This is what is commonly referred to as "flying water" in Cantonese (汆水). The point here is remove the excess blood and scum within the meat with boiling water. This way, when the meat is braised, the stock would not turn mucky.
- Once the blood and scum stop coming out from the meat, take the meat out and clean under cold, running water. Set aside. Dump everything away and clean the pot. Allow the meat to cool down and rest for 10 minutes.
- Using the grooves as guides, cut the beef brisket into large chunks so that each piece contains a groove.
- Chop the Chinese celery up so that it would fit inside the pot.
- Liberally oil the pot and bring it to high heat. Then sautee the celery and garlic, along with the rest of the aromatics - bay leaves, mandarin peel, star anise, white peppercorns and Sichuan peppercorns. Once the leaves and garlic are sufficiently browned, deglaze pan with a splash or two of Chinese cooking wine. Do not add too much or the wine flavor would be too potent.
- Cook out the wine, around 3 minutes. When done, add in the liter of veal stock, and the liter of chicken stock. Bring this to boil. Season to taste.
- Turn the heat down to medium. Add in the chunks of beef and let them simmer in a gentle boil for at least 3.5 hours for this size of meat.
- Over time, you can poke on the brisket. If the meat has a fair amount of resistance and elasticity, it is done. With brisket, the margins of error are rather large since the meat inherently contains a fair amount of fat content. Therefore, it would be difficult to overcook and dry out the meat.
- Once the time is up, remove the brisket and set aside to cool. It is imperative to let the meat rest for at least twenty minutes. During this time, the meat contracts so the juices stay within the meat. If you slice the brisket now, the juices will end up on the cutting board and not on the meat itself.
- Strain the stock and remove all the solids. Skim off any excess oils.
Serve
- After resting, cut the brisket into 1-inch thick slices. Avoid cutting them too thinly.
- Drain the water from the rice noodles (vermicelli in this case). Cook them in the stock for no more than 1 minutes on high heat to preserve the texture.
- Place the noodles in a deep bowl. Top with sliced brisket and garnish with diced Chinese celery and cilantro.
- Finally, ladle on hot stock and sprinkle with the deep fried garlic and shallots. A dab of chili oil makes an excellent compliment to this humble yet flavorful, homey dish.