Best Pressure Cooker Chinese Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 2.5 - 3 lbs beef chuck trim and cut into 1.5 inch cubes
- 1 sweet onion roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
- 1 teaspoon ketchup
- 1 teaspoon thirteen spice or five spice powder
- ½ teaspoon white pepper powder
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 cloves garlic with peel
- 1 piece 2-inch long ginger root smashed
- 1 cup chicken stock
- water
- 1 cup 1 inch cubed carrots about 3 carrots
- 2 cups 1 inch cubed white radish or daikon
- 2 teaspoon tapioca starch
- 4 teaspoon cold water
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- Warm white rice
Optional Topping
- Scallion thinly sliced
- Cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Heat the pressure cooker on medium high heat until the pan is very hot before placing the beef in an even layer in the pot. Cook until the bottom part of the beef has slightly browned.
- Add in onion and stir fry for 30 seconds.
- Add sugar, soy sauce, cooking wine, ketchup, thirteen spice and white pepper into the pot and stir to combine.
- Add bay leaves, garlic cloves, ginger root and chicken stock into the pot. Add water until the liquid almost covers the beef.
- Lock the lid and set on high pressure, cooking until the pressure cooker starts to hiss. Turn the heat to low/medium low and cook for another 20 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and let stand until pressure releases naturally or manually after 10 minutes. Unlock the lid, remove garlic cloves, bay leaves and ginger from the pot. Skim of the scum and part of the oil. (Do not remove all the oil!)
- Add carrots and white radish to the pot, stir gently to combine and simmer with lid on (no pressure) for 30 - 40 minutes until the carrots and white radishes are completely soft.
- Meanwhile, whisk tapioca starch with water together and set it aside.
- Bring the stew to a boil, stir the starch water again before pouring it in slowly in a circular motion. Stir right away so that the starch would be evenly distributed.
- Add sesame oil and then serve with white rice along with any optional toppings.
Notes
Since the chuck has higher fat content, I usually just brown it without adding extra oil. If the pot is hot enough, the meat shouldn't stick. One good way to test if the pot is hot enough is by dropping few drop of water, if the water slide on the pot instead evaporate, it means it's hot enough.
The amount of the carrots and white radish totally depends on your preference.