Spicy Thai Style Braised Beef

My friend Pep and her husband have been getting into cooking over the last year or so and she called Heather yesterday to say she was making a braised beef stew.  Not sure how she liked it yet, but it put me in a hearty beef stew mood, and since it was Sunday I had tons of time to do a nice braise.  I was in the mood for something with bolder flavors and more spice than a standard european style braised beef stew or even the delicious and rich beef bourguignon.

Most of the ingredients and spices (I threw in some

extra stuff after tasting a few times)

I thought about simple vietnamese style spicy braised beef, which was the sort of flavors i was in the mood for, but I still wanted something stew-ish that I could ladle over rice.  The solution, i decided, was a thai curry stew with a thick coconut milk based broth.  Going through this though process is something that you get much better at the more you cook and the more you eat out.  I make a point of picking new things to cook and eat so I'm exposed to new ideas I can use.  Being able to improvise based on mood, available ingredients, guests etc make cooking more fun and interesting.  So try new things, mix it in with your own cooking and don't worry about screwing it up.  You really do learn more from your mistakes than your successes in the kitchen.

So to start with, here's the ingredients:
note:  I don't include amounts for most ingredients because its mostly spices to taste.  I like a lot of spice and pungent flavors in this dish, but you might not.  The great thing about a braised dish like this is you can taste and add spices anytime once the braising liquid is added.

2.5 lbs beef chuck roast (other cuts are fine, but you need something with a lot of fat and connective tissue.  otherwise the braising process will leave you with dry meat)
vegetable oil
ginger
grape tomatoes
cillantro
red onion
white mushrooms 1-2 pints
garlic (5-10 cloves)
2 8oz cans coconut milk
1 8oz can chicken broth
2 hot fresh peppers such as cayenne, thai, habanero. here i used 2 scotch bonnets.
cumin
cardamom
curry powder
black pepper
salt
tumeric
bay leave
cayenne power
paprika
dried chili pods (here is used dried pequin pepers)
fish sauce
white vinegar
white rice


So step one is to cube you beef.  I did approximately 3/4 in cubes.  Don't worry if it seems like there's a lot of fatty pieces, you want that fat.  During the cooking process it will break down and just give you a nice velvety sauce and moist meat.

Now salt the cubed beef liberally and heat a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in a dutch oven on high heat.  You can substitute any large thick bottomed pot but a dutch over or optimal because it can build a nice fond on the ceramic bottom (unlike non-stick coating pots) and it is easy to deglaze the fond and get it incorporated into the sauce (unlike cast iron or stainless steal).  Once the oil is very hot and shimmering, add just enough beef to cover the bottom.  If you over fill you will not brown.  The cooking meat will add too much moisture and most pieces won't make direct contact with the pot.  The key point to this whole step is to create a brown crust on the meat AND on the bottom of the pot.  Both add important flavor and color to the dish.

This is about 60% done browning (but the color balance is terrible)

If you look at the 2 picture below you'll see both the browning of the meat and fond on the pot you want.  It may look like the fond is burnt but its not.  You want this bark brown, but not black, so you do have to be careful and monitor heat, especially after the moisture released from the meat has evaporated.

Continue cooking the meat in batches, until its well browned.  You will have to turn it so it browns on both sides.  While the batches are cooking you can chop all your other ingredients and mix all your powder spices in a bowl.  

The ginger and garlic should be minced, the onion cut in strips, the mushrooms and cilantro roughly chopped and tomatoes left whole.  The various types of cuts affect both appearance and how how they cook.  For example, if you don't mince the ginger its too tough and fibrous to eat.  The mushrooms are tomato are left in large pieces mainly because they look nice when served.

After you finish the beef, reduce heat to medium, add the onions and cover to let them sweat.  this speeds the cooking process and traps the moisture which prevents the fond from burning.  After 5-7 minutes add the garlic and ginger, recover and cook 5 minutes.  

Next, add the tomatoes, mushrooms and chicken stock. Using a wooden or plastic spoon, scrape the pan bottom to loosen the fond and mix it into the stock.  Then add back the cooked beef, two cans of coconut milk, cilantro, diced scotch bonnets, dried pepper pods, cardamom, powered spice mix, bay leaves, fish sauce and white vinegar.  Its all to taste, but be cautious with the fish sauce.  Its very strongly flavored and if you're not asian, you might hate it.  You can also add lemon grass at this point but i didn't have any.  At the end I add lime juice.  Its best to wait till after cooking to add the lime juice because it looses its flavor in cooking.

Now cover and cook on med low for about 1.5 hours (or at about 300 in the oven). You can taste a couple times through the braising process to see if you want to add more spice or other flavorings.  The cooking process will change the flavors as you proceed.  I added a lot during this dish, but its important to remember you can always ADD but its much hard to TAKE OUT, so do a little at a time, especially with the very strong components like hot peppers or fish sauce.

After 1.5 hours or so, taste a final time and make any adjustments.  Then ladle about a half cup of liquid into a small bowl, add about 1.5 tablespoons of corn starch (or if you don't have corn starch about 5 tablespoons of flour) and mix well with a fork or whisk.  Then turn the stew back to med high and add the starch mixture. This will thicken the sauce and make it "stick" to the stew components and the rice on which I serve it.  Let the stew come back to a simmer for another 5 minutes and then you're done.  You can take the dutch oven off the stove to cool for about 15 minutes, then serve over rice.  For me this is a dish that doesn't need any other sides.  And remember that there are a hundred variations and adjustments you can make to this recipe. You could use pork, or chicken.  You could add bell papers or asparagus or lentils.  Once you know the basics and are familiar with the flavors and techniques its time to make the specific dish you want. 

Final dish plated with white rice.  The bright and contrasting colors really enhance the dish.