Nigella's Asian Braised Shin of Beef with Hot and Sour Shredded Salad

This was a casserole with a difference. It has beautiful Asian flavours in it and a cut of meat I had never cooked with before and the glorious sour shredded salad on top, which just went perfectly with the stew. If you make this, you have to make the salad too, it's just not right without it. I did take a lot of the fat off the shin of beef but as it's going to be cooked for ages I left some of it on to add extra flavour to the meat. I served it on a bed of egg noodles. Nigella suggests parsnip and ginger mash which I'm going to try with my leftovers.

Asian Braised Shin of Beef (from Nigella Kitchen)
(Serves 6)

(9 WW ProPoints per serving)

2 onions
1 5cm piece ginger
4 garlic cloves
2 tsp ground coriander
3 tbsp veg oil
250ml Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry
4 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp dark brown sugar
2l beef stock
2 tbsp oyster sauce
4 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise
3.5kg beef shin on the bone or 1kg off the bone

Preheat the oven to 150C. Quarter and peel the onions, peel and roughly slice the ginger, peel the garlic cloves and put all these in a food processor with the coriander. Blitz until finely chopped.

Heat the oil in a large casserole and fry this mixture gently, until soft and beginning to catch in the pan; this should take about 10 mins, over a medium heat with regular stirring.

Pour in the Chinese wine and let it bubble up. Add the soy sauce, brown sugar, stock, oyster sauce and vinegar. Bring to a boil, then drop in the cinnamon sticks and star anise.

Add the pieces of shin and let everything come up to a bubble again, then clamp on a lid and put into the oven for 2 hours.

Take the casserole out of the oven and using a slotted spoon, remove the beef to an ovenproof dish, cover with foil and keep warm in the oven, while you vigorously boil the sauce in a casserole on the hob, without a lid, until it has reduced by about a half.

Arrange the beef in a serving platter and pour over the reduced sauce, then dress the top with the hot and sour shredded salad (underneath).

Hot and Sour Shredded Salad
(Serves 6)

3 carrots
4 spring onions
1/2 cucumber
1 long red chilli
1 long green chilli
small bunch coriander

for the dressing
juice 1 lime
4 tbsp Thai fish sauce
1 tsp caster sugar

Peel the carrots, cut into batons and then julienne them, do the same with the cucumber.

Trim and halve the spring onions and julienne as well.

De-seed the chillies and cut into juliennes, then finely chop the coriander.

Combine all the vegetables and the chopped coriander in a bowl. In another bowl mix the lime juice, fish sauce and sugar together and dress the veg with this, then top the Asian Braised Shin of Beef with your salad.