Beef with Red Wine & Rosemary Ragù

I am sorry I have been remiss in my blogging this year - moved to a new country and started a new job. Since I came into possession of a smartphone with a half-decent camera last year, I have also neglected to use the proper camera to photograph my food - and it shows. Now that things have settled down a bit, I resolve to do better - starting today, after the outcome of this recipe left me feeling chuffed enough to get out the good camera and write about it this very night.

I had been missing the Beef with Red Wine and Rosemary on Rigatoni from Zucchini Bros, which sadly, I have not written about. I scoured the web for likely recipes but could not quite find one that would have produced a copy of the Zucchini Bros dish. Nevertheless, there were a few that looked promisingly meaty and rich, so they made the shortlist. I consulted M, as I do with all things Italian, and he picked this one. I had my doubts when it was cooking, because I, as usual, hadn't quite followed the recipe to the T. Luckily, it was forgiving.

Now to me, a ragù is a sauce with meat so tender, it falls into shreds when pressed. According to Wikipedia, however, a sauce with minced meat could also qualify, and though a ragù is in some ways similar to the French ragout, they are not the same thing. Someone out there will know the detailed culinary differences as, alas, I cannot enlighten you here today.

Despite my numerous failures, this ragù turned out beautifully rich, velvety and packed with flavour. The first hurdle was finding that I did not have enough wine, even though I was quite sure that I left half a bottle in the fridge specifically for this dish (but underestimated my brother's unquenchable thirst). Then I thought I must have used a bit too much tomato paste because I could taste its harsh metallic acidity in the sauce for the better part of the cooking process - so I threw in some sugar. After that I realised I had to switch to the smaller burner because the sauce was reducing far too quickly. It had only been cooking for an hour and because of that mistake, there wasn't enough liquid for it to continue simmering for another hour. To rectify that, and because I am slightly obsessive (the thought of a partial box of stock in the fridge was irritating me), I poured the rest of the 1 litre box of stock into the pot. And finally, for the garnish, I had thoughtlessly purchased Chinese parsley (i.e. coriander/cilantro) instead of European parsley (although this had next to no impact on the dish). All in all, I don't think these things really changed how it was supposed to turn out (had I adhered to the recipe) - I only did what I did to fix my mistakes, not improve the recipe. The one thing I intentionally changed was to substitute the canned peeled tomatoes, which I can't abide, with tomato puree. So I'll share the recipe as it is for now and adjust accordingly, if needed, the next time I make this - and there will be next time.


Beef and Red Wine Ragù

Ingredients
500g chuck steak, cut into 3cm pieces
200g pancetta, diced (I used streaky bacon)
1 onion
2 carrots
2 celery sticks
5 cloves garlic
4 sprigs rosemary
¼ cup tomato paste
250ml red wine
400g can peeled tomatoes (I used tomato puree)
300ml beef stock
1 pkt dried pappardelle (I used penne)
Shaved parmesan
½ bunch parsley, chopped

Method
1. Heat olive oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan and fry beef pieces in two separate batches until beef is well-browned. Remove from pan. Add pancetta and a little more olive oil and fry on medium heat until golden.

2. Meanwhile, cut vegetables into 2cm dice. Add vegetables and garlic to pancetta and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the rosemary, tomato paste and red wine and simmer for 2 minutes.

3. Return beef to pan with tinned tomato, stock, salt and pepper, and bring to the boil. Turn down heat, cover with a tight-fitting lid and simmer on the lowest heat for 2 hours. Stir every half hour.

4. When beef is soft, use a fork to tear into shreds. Cook pasta until al dente, drain and toss with olive oil. Serve in large bowls with ragu spooned on top. Garnish with parmesan and parsley.

Pork Satay @Sun May Hiong Satay House, Malacca

Whenever I happen to be in Malacca, I make it a point to have the pork satay at Sun May Hiong Satay House. It's something I grew up having only in Malacca, during our visits to the grandparents and so the city and this pork satay are inextricably linked in my mind. For non-Malaysians, satay is a traditionally Malay dish, most Malays are Muslim and abstain from pork, so pork satay is rarely found outside Malacca. Therefore, even though this satay house (calling it a restaurant feels like a bit of a stretch) moved to different locations around the city throughout the years, we faithfully tracked them down to sate our appetites for this delicious local treat. Without a doubt, it is my favourite type of satay and sauce. 

I was told throughout my childhood that the satay sauce at Sun May's is made with 'belimbing', giving it a bright, sourish, tanginess that sets it apart from the traditional sweet peanut satay sauces. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you whether this refers to starfruit (which is 'belimbing' in Malay) or its cousin the Averrhoa bilimbi. Whenever I referred to it as starfruit, as a child, I was corrected by my parents who insisted that the 'belimbing' in the sauce was not the plain ol' starfruit I was used to. My search on Google yielded the Averrhoa bilimbi as the closest possible alternative but I have never seen the sauce being made, so I have never been able to verify this.  

The combination of a coat of this delicious, tangy sauce on the properly charred, tasty, salty pieces of skewered pork is bliss, even in the blistering tropical heat that usually accompanies our trips to Malacca. The best part about this type of dining is that you don't have to order your food. As soon as you sit down, you are automatically given little pots of the satay sauce, ketupat (cubed, packed rice), cucumber and onion slices (that are all best enjoyed slathered in the sauce) and then various types of satay (pork, chicken, intestines, etc. - you can specify your preferences if you want), hot off the barbecue, are delivered to your table. We used to be able to devour 40 sticks each, but can now only manage 20 on a good day - ah, the appetites of teenagers. The only thing that isn't ideal (especially if you are hungry) is the occasional long wait between satay servings - but I suppose that is the price of getting them fresh off the coals, so you'd best allay your hunger and impatience with those cucumbers and ketupats.

Sun May Hiong Satay House

50/50A Jalan Kota Laksamana 1/1

Taman Kota Laksamana

75200 Melaka 

Malaysia

+606 281 7281

Hong Kong 2013 Part I: Chau Tau Foo and Other Adventures

Thanks to my aunt's generosity, I end up visiting Hong Kong again this year. The following are the events that transpired (and the food that was eaten):

On our first night, Aunt's friends (T & L) took us to Temple Street, where fortune tellers, random 'karaoke' singers and other assorted 'entrepreneurs' lined their tent stalls for the night's trade. I was most amused at the 'singers', who were simply standing by themselves, at the side of the road, singing (neither poorly nor well) over recorded music piping out of old fashioned stereos - is there really a living to be made of this or do they do it for their own pleasure? And apparently you can make song requests! I imagine that you would have to pay them something for that, but I can't imagine anyone paying to hear a bad cover of a song they (presumably) like, in a back-alley, among hawkers. It has been quite a while since I last entertained a notion that I found so equally baffling and entertaining.

After Aunt got her rather unimpressive palm reading, we ended up in Mongkok where I had my very first 'chau tau foo' (smelly tofu). Actually we (Pa, Bro and I) came across the same stall last year but had just consumed a rather large roast goose lunch, so I couldn't quite manage anything else at the time. We were ambling along when Pa stopped in his tracks, raised a finger in mid air, indicating to the atmosphere, and amusedly asked, "Aha! Can you smell that? Do you know what it is?". I took a whiff and smelt the odour of my beloved salted fish, but since we were in Hong Kong, I guessed that it was chau tau foo. I thought it smelt fantastic! Pa then, chortling, proclaimed that I was "a real Chinese" and the first person he knew who loved the smell of chau tau foo. The smell comes from the fermented brine that the tofu is marinated in, which apparently smells like garbage to most others. Quite the manifestation of 'one man's garbage...'

This time, the conditions were perfect - it was cool, close to midnight and there was a fantastic, more relaxed, market atmosphere with lots of people eating and walking around, unwinding after a long day's work (in contrast to the busy, restless, work day crowd Pa, Bro and I encountered during the lunch rush last year). T & L very kindly got us some chau tau foo, slathered with all the appropriate sauces, and initiated us on the intricacies of CTF appreciation. Aunt had to be convinced to simply try a bite, but not I. The skin was wonderfully crispy and savoury and all the lovely intense sauces (sorry, no idea what they were) that were smoky, spicy, sweet, salty and bean-y made it quite a delicious treat. Without the skin and the sauces (i.e. the insides), it tasted just like regular tofu.

We then moved on to Yuet Hing Yuen (33 Soy Street, Mongkok) where we had Vietnamese noodles with the most potent, intoxicating broth and ended the night at Lucky Dessert (25-27 Soy Street, Mongkok) with some pretty decent tong sui - I had my favourite 'pak gor yee mai' (gingko & barley), with a twist, i.e. the addition of 'tau foo fa' (soy bean curd).

When we got back to the hotel, I realised that my phone wasn't detecting Aunt's internet hotspot so I resigned myself to internet deprivation until Monday. The significance of this will be explained later.

To be continued...