Braised Beef Shin or Shank in Spicy Soy Sauce Recipe. Thinly sliced of braised beef shank that served chilled as Chinese style cold beef appetizer is a very pupular dish in Chinese restaurant. The whole beef shin or shank muscles is slowly cooked for several hours in a spicy soya sauce and fragrance spices braising liquid until turning into deliciously tender and fragrance beef meat with beautiful stripes of translucent collagen patterning once the it chilled overnight and thinly sliced.

The Chinese style cold cut beef shank braised in spicy soy sauce is one of my favourite appetizer once i visit Chinese restaurant, even my sister used to judge the Executive Chef’s personal licking from it; either the chef got bland or kicking taste buds. Braised beef shank is also a part of classic siu mei (燒味) or roasted meat and cold cut meat platter appetizer. I usually saved the cold cut beef shank for the last bites once i ordered siu mei.

Beef shank or shin is a very versatile cheap beef cut, mostly slowly cooked with liquid until tender. Slow heat cooking break down the beef shin’s tough sinewy muscle (meat with tendon, ligament and silver skin) protein into tender translucent collagen within easily breakable meat. Beef shank is considered as second cut, a little bit of passion can turn that cheap beef cut into a very delicious hearty dish. You know why this braised beef shank will be lovely??? the spicy soy sauce braising liquid is very rich; garlicky, gingery, natural umamy savoury from the beef juice dripping, hot and spicy from chilies, numbning sensation from the szechuan peppercorn, sweetness from kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce) and palm sugar and also tangy flavour from chinese black vinegar; isn’t it not quite seducing your taste buds???

In Indonesia, we used to called beef shank as daging sengkel sapi, it’s one of the most favoutire beef cut in Indonesian cuisine dishes. My Grandma used to make soup or Indonesian Beef Rendang with beef shank. Bone-in beef shank with a little bit meat attach is the best ingredients in Indonesian Pindang Tulang Soup, a dish similiar with Chinese Hot and Soup Beef Bone Soup. I actually love all kind of shank, you’ll find several lamb shank featured on my blog; Braised Lamb Shank with Chilies Recipe, Braised Lamb Shank with Baked Navy Beans Recipe and Lamb Shank and Goat Shank Indian Vindaloo Curry Recipe. Pork shank or wild boar shin is also lovely to made rich stock for making Homemade Tontkotsu Ramen Broth from Scratch Recipe.

In Indonesia, this Chinese styke braised beef shank with spicy soy sauce is similiar with Semur Daging Sapi (Indonesian Sweet Soy Sauce Beef Stew), but the kecap manis is a dominant ingredient that made semur pretty much sweeter than the Chinese style soya sauce braised beef. Chinese style braised beef shin got a fragrance aromas from excessive uses of spices; sichuan peppercorn, cinnamon and anise star within garlic, ginger and scallion, while the semur daging sapi pretty much spiced with Homemade Garam Marsala.

Braising beef shin or shank with spicy Chinese soy sauce is a very simple and easy following steps recipe. There are three basic steps or braising; marinating, pan searing and simmering. The whole beef shank is trimmed from excessive fat without touching the sinews (whitish fibrous tissue uniting muscle to bone or bone to bone; a tendon or ligament or silverskins). The sinews is the highlight of the Chinese style braised beef shin with soy sauce once it become translucent. The fat definitely needed to trimmed off the beef shank because the braised beef shank is chilled before serving and any fat will ruined the dish.

The trimmed whole beef shank then marinated with salt, peppercorn and chinese five spice powder. The beef shank then seared on smokey hot cast iron pan until all surface browned and charred. Extra sliced bruised ginger, garlic, chilies and white part of scallion added and stir fried until slighly browned too. Plenty amount of premium soy sauce then added into the pan to stop the searing process. The bottom of the pan then scrapped off to remove any sticking seasoning then the mixture is transferred into a crock pot then boiled. Right after the mixture is boiled, spices like cinnamon, daun salam (Indonesian bay leaves), Szechuan peppercorn, and star anise. The pot then simmerred several hours above the stove of in a a medium high heat oven (about 160 C) until the beef shank is tender. The braising liquid is not compeletely submerged the beef shank, so it’s better be to turn the beef shank every 30 minutes to ensure the spices is transfered and penetrated throughly into the meat. To test the tenderness of the braised beef shank, insert a fork and it should be penetrate without any difficulty into the deepest part of the beef shank.

Once the beef shank is braised until tender on spicy soya sauce, don’t be too greedy to cut the beef shank immediately. The beef shank is needed to be chilled overnight before serving. Remove the beef shank from the spicy soy sauce braising liquid, rolled into simmetrical cillindrical tube with a help of translucent cling wrap plastic. Let it sit in the coolest part of the fridge chiller to let the braised beef shank collagen and gelatine set and made it more easy to thinly sliced. The Chinese style beef shin braising liquid is actually can be strained and then chilled until set, cubed and then served within the thinly sliced beef shank meat too if you like.

The chilled cold braised beef shank carefully sliced into very thin slices and then arranged in a serving plate. I personally love anyting hot and spicy, so i add some chili oil with a touch of toasted ground Szechuan peppercorn husk for serving my braised beef shin with spicy soy sauce. The kicking hot chili pepper and numbning sensation of Szechuan peppercorn balanced the savoury sweet braised beef shank. I also added some bean sprout and local herbs micro greens called daun kenikir (Cosmos Caudatus sp) or daun ulam raja for a extra crisp and refreshing bites

Recipe Braised Beef Shank with Spicy Soy Sauce, Chili, Garlic, Gingger and Scallion ( Cold Cut Thin SLiced Beef Shin)

Ingredients:

1.5 – 2 kg whole beef shank or beef shin
1.5 cup premium soy sauce
1 tbsp chinese black vinegar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp sweet soy sauce
1 tbsp mushrooms sauce #optional
1 cup water or beef stock
3 red chillies, halves, roughly chopped
1 onion, quartered
12 cloves garlic (whole bulbs), bruised
1 tbsp toasted szechuan pepeprcorn
1 tbsp brown sugar
5 cm ginger, bruised, thinly sliced
5 cm cinnamon stalk
3-5 star anise
2-3 green cardamon #optional
1/2 nutmeg #optional
1 daun salam (Indonesian bay leaves)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste

Beef Shank or Shin Marinade Recipe:

salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp chinese five spice
2 tbsp oil for pan searing

Garnish and Dressing :

Chili and Szechuan Peppercorn oil (Recipe below)
Bean Sprout
Micro greens leavy herbs

How to Make Thin Sliced Cold Cut Braised Beef Shank with Spicy Soy Sauce:

Marinade the beef shank with salt, chinese five star and peppercorn, marinade 2 hours in the fridge.
Heat up 2 tbsp oil until sizzling hot, sear the whole beef shank all over, make sure all surface are throughly seared. set aside
Heat up the 2 tbsp oil in a heavy bottom sauce pan, saute the garlic, ginger, onion, and chilies until charred and browned
Pour the stock and put the rest of the ingredients, scrapped the sticking ingredients in the botton of the pan
Transfer the beef shank and the braising liquid mixture in a heavy botton crock pot, bring the liquid to boil.
Reduce the heat, put the lid and simmer, turn the beef shank every 30 minutes
Simmer the beef shank until tender for about 2-3 hours
Remove the beef shank from the spicy soy sauce braising liquid, set aside
Wrapped and rolled tthe tender braised beef shank with plastic cling wrap to make a regular cillindrical tube shape
Refrigerate the braised beef shank with Chinese spicy soy sauce overnight
Carefully thinly sliced the braised beef shank
served the cold cur braised beef shank with chili and szechuan peppercorn oil, bean sprout and micro greens leaves.

Recipe Chili and Szechuan Peppercorn Oil:

Heat up 1 tbsp oil, add 1 tbsp chopped fresh deseeded bird eye chilies, 2 tbsp chili flakes and1 tbsp toasted Szechuan peppercorn husk
Slowly saute with low heat and then springkle some salt
Add 1 cup olive oil and let it simmer in a very low heat (one small bubbles comes out at a time) for about 45 minutes
Turn off the heat and the chili oil is ready to use