Chinese Beef Stew

While thinking of Chinese food – here’s a recipe that worked well for me and surprised me with its simplicity, basically it is a beef stew with Chinese flavourings. First, fry some chopped garlic (6 cloves) ginger and a bunch of spring onions together in a lot of olive oil, in a casserole, then remove, and then chop some braising steak into chunks, coat in seasoned flour and brown on all sides, adding more oil if necessary. Then return the spring onions etc to casserole, add some 5 spice powder and star anise, then 500ml beef stock, a few table spoons of soy sauce, a glass of wine or sherry (less if using sherry), add the beef and simmer, covered, on low heat for 1.5-2 hours. Near the end add some steamed or boiled pak choi, and serve with fried rice.