melonoat

This is one of those dishes I grew up eating and watching my mom make. When I got older, I asked my mom how to make this dish, and of course she had no recipe as it was all done from her head with no measurements. Measurements to her were- pour the soysauce until the broth is dark and tastes right… or add enough water to cover the meat.

I’ve practiced this dish plenty- I’ve probably made this dish about 6 times now, never using exact measurements and just going with my gut feeling. I’m happy to say the dish always turned out well! But for you, my readers, this last time, I meticulously took notes down, scribbling, scratching out, and revising until I could get it to somewhat resemble a recipe. So here we go…

Time: 2-3 hours active and let sit overnight.

Ingredients

Cooking wine, soy sauce (left), and the stew packet (right)

Soy bean cake, peanuts, seaweed(left), and the anise star (八角） (right)

sugar- rock candy

1 banana beef shank (i picked mine up at 99 ranch)
2 cups soy sauce, more if necessary
1.5 cups cooking wine, more if necessary
4 cups water, more if necessary
2 inch piece of ginger
1 anise star (八角）
1 stew (滷味) packet
1 package soy bean cake
1 package peanuts
1 package seaweed
2 medium sized pieces rock candy
1 package 燒餅 (shao bing)
cilantro to garnish

Directions

1. In a large pot (enough to hold the beef shank with room to spare) fill 2/3 full with water and let boil. Add the raw beef shank and let boil for ~10 minutes to clean the beef. Then carefully pour out the water into the sink and rinse the inside of the pot to clean. Put the pot back on the stove.

2. Add 2 cups soy sauce, 1.5 cup cooking wine, ~4 cups water (enough to cover the meat), ginger, 1 anise star (八角）, 1 stew (滷味) packet. The color of the liquid should be somewhat dark, as that will be the color of your meat. So, if it is looking light, add some more soy sauce. Let boil, then turn down heat to low, cover, and let simmer for ~45 minutes.

3. After the first 45 minutes, check on the level of the liquid. If it is low, add more soy sauce, water, wine as necessary. You can also flip the meat in the pot at this time. Taste the soup at this time, and add salt if necessary. Let simmer for another 45 minutes on low heat.

4. Check to see if the meat is done- you can poke it with a chopstick and if it goes through easily, it is done. Also add 2 medium sized pieces of rock candy at this time and let cook for another 30 minutes.

5. Take meat out and reserve remaining broth. Let the meat cool ~10 minutes and then wrap in foil and put in fridge.

6. Add the soy bean curd, peanuts, and seaweed to the broth and let simmer on low heat for another 45 minutes. Taste to make sure the flavor is in all the sides. If the flavor is strong enough, you can take everything out into a plate, otherwise, you can leave it in the pot and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

Next day, or after the meat has cooled in the fridge.

7. The meat is MUCH easier to slice when it has cooled. So go ahead and slice away!

8. Take the sides out, plate with some cilantro and serve! I like to serve with 燒餅 (shao bing) or just eat with rice.