Japanese-Inspired Beef Stew

Serves 4

Preparation Cooking Time: 3 hours

Ingredients:
1. 4 beef shanks
2. 4 TBS flour to coat the beef shanks
3. 100-400ml water
4. 1-2 cloves garlic chopped
5. 1 large onion chopped
6. 2 large carrots chopped
7. 2 potatoes chopped into bite size (optional)
8. 2 TBS cooking oil
9. 4 TBS wine or mirin (optional)
10. 4 TBS soya sauce (optional)
11. 1 TBS sugar (optional)
12. 1/2 tsp dashi powder
13. 8 frozen green beans or green peas
14. Salt & pepper

Directions:
1. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the beef shanks and coat them lightly with flour.

2. Heat pan with 1 TBS oil, fry the beef shanks for 2.5 minutes on each side until brown.

3. Transfer to another pot with a little water (100ml), cover and simmer low heat for 3 hours (no. 2.5 on my stove.) (Do not worry about the lack of water, as more liquid will come out, as it cooks. Just monitor that it has enough water, so that it does not get burned.)

4. While the shanks are cooking, wash, rinse and chop vegetables.

5. Add potatoes into the pot with beef shanks.

6. Heat oil on a separate pan with 1 TBS of cooking oil, fry garlic until golden.

7. Add onion and fry until coated with oil.

8. Add carrots and fry until coated with oil.

9. Sizzle with mirin or wine (optional). Add to the pot with beef shanks and simmer for 3 hours.

10. Add green bean and serve. You can also cut up the beef shanks into bite size before serving.

Tips:
1. In order to include a green vegetable, I sometimes throw in a cup of green peas just 5 minutes before serving and let it simmer for last 5 minutes.

Nutritional Value:
Beef shank is a good source of phorsphorus, zinc, selenium, iron and vitamin B3 (niacin), vitamin B12, but it is high in cholesterol and calories.

Additional Information:

This way of cooking is similar to the Japanese dish Nikujaga, but beef shanks are used and the simmering time is longer.