This is such a wonderful dish, it tastes wonderful and Chinese believe that it is good for you. We, Chinese, believe in 以形补形， meaning you make tonic out of the part of the animal that you hope to benefit from. For example, if you want to strengthen the brains, eat an animal brain. So if we eat beef tendons, our legs get stronger.
I am not sure if my legs are getting stronger from eating these, but I know my legs do get bigger. 😉 These are simply wonderful.
Best done with a pressure cooker. I have not made these in a regular pot for decades, so I have no clue how long it takes. My guess is at least 2 hours. But with the pressure cooker, the pressure is off.
Braised Beef Tendons
Ingredients
- 2 pieces beef tendons cut into 2 cm pieces
- 200 g beef steak I used stewing meat
- 5 garlic minced
- Thumb sized Ginger sliced
- 5 Spring Onions white part only
Seasoning
- 1 Tbsp Soya sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp XO or Chinese wine
- 1 Tbsp Corn starch
Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Oyster sauce
- 1 Tbsp Dark Soya sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 teaspoon five spice powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 star anise
Instructions
- Season the meat and tendon with the seasoning, and leave for 15 minutes.
- Prepared the sauce, by mixing all the ingredients for the sauce together.
- In a pressure pot, heat up 1 Tbsp of cooking oil and fry the garlic till light brown.
- Fry the meat and tendon until they change colour.
- Add all the ingredients of the sauce into the pressure cooker.
- Set cooker for 45 minutes on high.
- When done, open the lid carefully, and let it continue to boil for another 10-15 minutes.
