Chinese Double-Boiled Carrots and Potato Soup with Pressure Cooker

Serves 1-2

Preparation and Cooking Time: 30 mintues

Ingredients:
1. 1 chicken thigh or 2 drum sticks
2. 1/2 medium carrot or 1 small carrot sliced
3. 1 small potato sliced thin
4. 750 - 1000ml of water
5. 5 goji berries (optional)
6. 1/2 stalk spring onion chopped (optional for garnishing)

Materials:
1. 1 large heat-proof bowl
2. 1 metal stand
3. 1 plate or 1 piece of alumimun foil to cover the bowl
4. 1 large pressure cooker

Directions:
1. Put all ingredients a large bowl and prevent moisture loss by covering it with a plate.

2. Place a metal stand into the bottom of the pressure cooker fill it with 2 - 3 inches of water (at least 250ml of water to create steam). Turn on high heat for the water to boil.

3. When the water boils, place the large bowl in the pressure cooker. Then place all the ingredients in the bowl, fill the bowl up with water or soup base. Cover the bowl with a plate or alumimun foil to prevent moisture loss (optional). The bowl should sit on the metal stand.

4. Close the pressure cooker and bring it to pressure on high heat and cook at setting no. 2 (my stove fire at no. 5 - 5.5) for 5 minutes or under setting 1 (my stove fire at no. 4) for 15 minutes. (If you are not using pressure cooker, you can double-boil it for 1 hour under low heat).

5. Wait until the pressure cooker cool down on its own or cool under water and remove pressure cooker lid. Serve :-)

Chinese Double-boiled Carrot and Chicken Soup Using Pressure Cooker

Serves 1-2

Preparation and Cooking Time: 30 mintues

Ingredients:
1. 1 chicken thigh or 2 drum sticks
2. 1/2 medium carrot or 1 small carrot sliced
3. A handful of Chinese cabbage chopped
4. 750 - 1000ml of water
5. 5 goji berries (optional)
6. 1/2 stalk spring onion chopped  (optional for garnishing)

Materials:
1. 1 large heat-proof bowl
2. 1 metal stand
3. 1 plate or 1 piece of alumimun foil to cover the bowl
4. 1 large pressure cooker

Directions:
1. Put all ingredients a large bowl and prevent moisture loss by covering it with a plate.

2. Place a metal stand into the bottom of the pressure cooker fill it with 2 - 3 inches of water (at least 250ml of water to create steam). Turn on high heat for the water to boil.

3. When the water boils, place the large bowl in the pressure cooker. Then place all the ingredients in the bowl, fill the bowl up with water or soup base. Cover the bowl with a plate or alumimun foil to prevent moisture loss (optional). The bowl should sit on the metal stand.

4. Close the pressure cooker and bring it to pressure on high heat and cook at setting no. 2 (my stove fire at no. 5 - 5.5) for 5 minutes or under setting 1 (my stove fire at no. 4) for 15 minutes. (If you are not using pressure cooker, you can double-boil it for 1 hour under low heat).

5. Wait until the pressure cooker cool down on its own or cool under water and remove pressure cooker lid. Serve :-)

Additional Information:
Using the pressure cooker to double-boil Chinese tonic soup is a fantastic way to save time, and yet achieve the results of full flavoured soup with tender meat derived from Chinese double-boiling soup method :-)

Creamy Danish Rice Pudding with Almonds/Risalamande

Recipe adapted from Ala

Serves 6

Preparation and Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
1. 1 cup or 180-200 g pudding rice (Grødris) (you can substitute it with sushi rice)
2. 1 liter of fresh skimmed milk
3. 200g almonds
4. 2 stalks of vanilla pods and use only the beans inside
5. 4 TBS sugar
6. 250 ml whipping Cream 38%
7. 250 ml water for steaming the rice

Directions:

1. Place a metal stand into the pressure cooker, add 250ml water and lower an empty heat-proof bowl into it.

2. Add rice and milk into the bowl.

3. Close the pressure cooker, turn on high heat till the pressure cooker reaches pressure steam under setting 2. Turn down heat (no. 5 on my stove) to maintain at setting 2 and steam for 20 minutes.

4. When the pressure cooker cools down, remove rice pudding from pressure cooker, and add milk to adjust to desired consistency.

5. When it is cool, cover rice pudding and place it in the fridge for at least 2 hours or until the next day.

6. Blanch almonds with boiling water and remove skin.

7. Take an almond from and chop the rest.

8. Add vanilla grains, sugar and ground almonds into the cold rice pudding.

9. Just before serving, whip the cream into a light foam using a hand-mixer and fold it gently into the porridge together with the chopped and whole almonds.

10. Serve with cherry sauce (optional) or frozen raspberries for a healthier alternative.

Additional Information:

This is a very traditional Danish Christmas dessert. The base is made from the risengrød, which is the Danish Rice Porridge or rice pudding. Thus, to make this dessert, you have to make the risengrød first. It is very delicious and I like it a lot, although with the cream and sugar, it is not exactly a healthy dish. The guest gets to serve a bowl and the person who finds the whole almond in his bowl gets a present.

It is very tedious to make, as it is not easy to cook rice with milk without burning the bottom. It requires frequent stiring and requires one to stand for a long time in the kitchen. Many Danes nowadays will buy store bought rice porridge. But one can make it from scratch and yet do away with the frequrent stiring by using the Chinese double-boiling method. It is the same concept as melting chocolate, using indirect heat source from double-boiling. Furthermore, if you double-boil it using a pressure cooker, the cooking time is greatly reduced to less than half an hour, :-) You can also use the double-boiling method on ordinary pot, but it will take hours under simmering. The advantage of using the double-boiling method, whether you use a normal pot for double boiling or the pressure cooker, is that you don't need to stand in the ktichen to stir it, freeing you time for other things :-)

References:

http://www.arla.dk/opskrifter/risalamande/
http://www.arla.dk/opskrifter/Kirsebarsauce/

Chinese Potato Soup/Kinesisksuppe med Kartofler/土豆汤

My mum, May Loh's recipe

Serves 4

Preparation & Cooking Time: 30 minutes to 1 hour (depending on if you use pressure cooker or ordinary pot)

Ingredients:
° 2-3 large potatoes cut into chunks
° 2 carrots cut into chunks
° 3 large tomatoes or 5 cherry tomatoes chopped into 2 or 4
° 2 onions chopped
° 650g pork spare ribs (2 slabs)
° 2-3 litre water or vegetable stock
° 5-8 oyster mushrooms cut into slices (østershatte/牡蛎蘑菇) (Optional)
° ½ cup dried soy beans (Optional)
° A sprinkle of chives chopped (purløg/韭菜) (Optional)
° Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Bring water and soy beans to boil on high.

2. Add potatoes, onions, carrots, oyster mushrooms and pork ribs.

3. Cover lid and once pressure cooker reaches pressure according to your cooker, let it cook for 15 minutes. If you are using ordinary port, let it simmer on low heat (no. 2.5 – 3 on my stove) for 1 hour, keeping it boiling gently.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

5. Garnish with chives and serve

Tips:
1. Sprinkle goji berries on top (Joshua loves it this way).

Nutritional Value:
Potatoes are a good source of complex carbohydrates, vitamin C, vitamin B6 (which supports the formation of almost all the new cells in your baby's body) and potassium. They also contain fibre, iron, folates, riboflavin, thiamin, niacin, zinc and magnesium.

The carbohydrates in potatoes contain something called 'resistant starch' - so named because it resists being digested on its way to the large intestine! Once there, it acts like fibre, in that it lowers cholesterol and helps guard against colon cancer.

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Additional Information:
This is a very simple and easy dish to cook, and such a classic dish during my childhood. It brought back lots of cozy, and... at times, painful memories. My mum and my granny (dad's side) used to cook this soup. My aunties loved this soup that my granny made. My granny had a very very hard life supporting the family of many kids (I even lost count of the number of kids she had), since my grandfather passed away very early. My dad started working as a teenager to help support the family. Finally, when my last uncle L graduated from university, and could give her some good life from a good job, she got terminal cancer and passed away when she was 60 years old. We did not know for sure, whether she accepted Christ, before she passed away, but I believe she did. My granny is a very kind lady. I think perhaps, my uncle L asked God why this happened, and I also asked God why. I think at some point my Uncle L backslided away from God, because of this. But God's ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Someday, I look forward to seeing my granny in heaven, and ask God if He could tell me why. No matter what, I know that God is good and loving and He knows best. I am glad I am able to share it with my blog after all these years.

I cooked this last week for Joshua, and he loved it. I looked forward to tell Joshua the history behind this dish, when he grows up.

Healthy Black Bean Soup/Sunde Sorte Bønnesuppe/黑豆湯[hēi dòu tāng]

Serves 2-4

Preparation and Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
1. 1 cup dried black beans
2. 2 dried bay leaves (laurbærblade)
3. 1 litre or 4 cups water
4. Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Cook beans with water in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes at high pressure (setting no. 2 on my pressure cooker and no. 2 on my stove).

2. To save energy, switch off the stove, but let the cooker stay on the stove for 5-10 minutes.

3. Then carefully open the release vault and allow the steam to escape before opening the lid.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Discard bay leaves and blend the black beans directly in the pot with a stick blender and serve :-)

Tips:
1. You can soak the beans the night before, but it is not really necessary.

Nutritional Value:
Black beans are an excellent source of iron and manganese. Black beans are an excellent source of cholesterol-lowering fiber and high quality protein. Black beans are high in dietary fiber, folate, molybdenum, tryptophan, vitamin B1 (thiamin), complex carbohydrates, magnesium and phosphorus.

Black beans have also recently been reported to be an extremely good source of nutritional antioxidants. Gram for gram, black beans are found to have the most antioxidant activity in the bean family.

Black beans help protect against cancer, lower heart attack risk and are good for diabetic as it give you energy to burn while stabilizing blood sugar. When combined with a whole grain such as whole wheat pasta or brown rice, provide protein comparable to that of meat or dairy foods without the high calories or saturated fat found in these foods.

Additional Information:
I accidentally concorted this healthy yet super delicious recipe, while trying to follow a much more complicated recipe. I tested it, and this simple soup brought out the flavour of black beans perfectly. But unfortunately I went on to add all the other ingredients (olive oil, carrots, cumin, chilli powder, celery, onion and garlic) the other recipe called for, and it turned out disastrous. Next time, I will just stop at this step. This recipe is amazingly simple, but yet it tastes so good, which is hard to believe. But it truly does. Try it and DON'T add any other ingredients. You will fall in love with simply black beans with this soup :-) I didn't have any picture for this soup, as I didn't think of taking a picture before I added all the other unnecessary ingredients. Will put up a picture when I make this soup again.

From today's experience, I learned one lesson: sometimes the fewer ingredients, the better, and it is best to use one main ingredient.

References:
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=2

Chinese Beef Stew/Kinesisk Oksekødsstuvning/炖牛肉[dùn niú ròu]

Serves 4

Preparation & Cooking Time: 1.5 hour (for pressure cooker) or 4 hours for normal cooking

Ingredients:
- 500g of stew beef
- 1 beef bone (optional)
- 5 carrots chopped into medium size 1 inch pieces
- 8 dried shitake mushrooms
- 2 onions chopped
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 thumb size ginger chopped
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 5 star anise
- 5 cloves
- 1 cardamom
- 1 litres of water (including the water used for soaking the mushrooms)
- 1 tsp sugar (optional)
- 2 tsp cooking oil
- 5 TBS Chinese light soy sauce
- 1 TBS Chinese dark soy sauce (optional)
- 1 TBS sesame oil
- 1 pinch salt
- Sprinkle of black pepper
- 5 TBS oatmeal ground (optional, use this if you wish to thicken the soup)

Directions:
1. Soak the dried shitake mushrooms for 15 minutes and cut into quarters.

2. Cut the beef into big cubes about 1 inch by 1 inch.

3. Fry garlic, ginger and onion until golden.

4. Add mushrooms and fry until fragrant.

5. Add beef and brown it.

6. Add the carrots.

7. Add the beef bones, all the spices, sesame oil, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper.

8. Add the ground oatmeal mixed with the water and add it to the pot (optional).

9. Close the pressure cooker and bring to pressure (under setting 2 for mine), then cook for 30 minutes. If you are not using a pressure cooker, simmer in a pot or slow cooker for 3 hours.

10. If you wish to thicken the soup, add the oatmeal powder with some water into the soup and stir and bring to bowl until the soup thickens.

11. Garnish with spring onions if desired and serve with rice.

Tips:
1. Make noodle soup with left over beef stew.

2. If you have a toddler who doesn't like beef, you can scoop out some of the broth and add cod fish and serve the soup and the cod fish with the rice noodles.

Nutritional Value:
The 5 spices used in this soup is very beneficial for health. The star anise seeds are an excellent source of many essential B-complex vitamins such as pyridoxine, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin. Pyridoxine (vitamin B-6) helps increase GABA neuro-chemical levels in the brain.

The spicy seeds are great source of minerals like calcium, iron, copper, potassium, manganese zinc and magnesium. Potassium in an important component of cell and body fluids that helps control heart rate and blood pressure. The star anise also contains good amounts of anti-oxidant vitamins such as vitamin-C and vitamin-A.

Cloves are an excellent source of manganese, a very good source of dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K and omega-3 fatty acids and a good source of calcium and magnesium.

Cinnamon is an excellent source of manganese and a very good source of dietary fiber, calcium and iron.

Seasoning a high carb food with cinnamon can help lessen its impact on your blood sugar levels. Cinnamon slows the rate at which the stomach empties after meals, reducing the rise in blood sugar after eating. It is also helpful in lessening inflammation.

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Additional Information:
I like to make stew such as the Chinese beef stew or the italian Osso Bucco especially on weekend when we usually have a packed programme and I can't reach home in time to make dinner. With stew, I can start making dinner way ahead of time already in the morning when J is still sleeping. Then we can go out, and by dinner time when we reached home, we can just warm the food and eat dinner. I don't have to spend time making dinner.

Daddy tried the Chinese beef stew at Ting Tai Fung restaurant in Singapore and liked it a lot. So I am making Chinese beef stew for him. I didn't use any oatmeal to thicken the soup on the picture above.

Pho Bo Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup/Vietnamesiske Nudlersuppe med Oksekød/越式牛肉汤面 [Yuè shì niú ròu tāng miàn]

The Pho beef noodle soup I made today

Serves 4

Preparation & Cooking Time: 1.5 hour (for pressure cooker) or 4 hours for normal cooking

Ingredients:

The broth:
- 500g beef bones
- 2 beef shanks (Osso bucco)
- 500g beef tenderloin, cut in thin slices
- 2 onions, halved, unpeeled
- 1 clove garlic, unpeeled
- 4” ginger, halved length wise, unpeeled
- 5 star anise
- 5 cloves
- 1 cardamom
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 TBS fennel seeds
- 1 TBS of coriander pods (optional)
- 3 litres of water
- 1 tsp sugar (optional)
- 1 tsp cooking oil (to char the ginger and onions)

The raw beef:
- 400g beef tenderloin, cut in thin slices (easier to cut if it is slightly frozen)

The rice noodles:
- 400g dried rice noodles/sticks
- Enough water to cover and boil the noodles
- Dash of salt

The soup bowl:
- A handful of cooked rice noodles
- 1 handful mung bean sprouts
- 5-8 slices of raw beef
- 2 stalk of spring onions, chopped
- 1 piece of lime cut
- 2-3 slices of chilli (optional)
- 1 handful of mint leaves (optional)
- 1 handful of cilantro (optional)
- 2 tsp fish sauce (optional)

Directions:
1. Put the beef tenderloin in the freezer for at least 15 minutes. In this way they will be cold and it would be easier to slice them thinly when you take them out.

2. Char the ginger and onions on a pan on the stove.

3. To make the broth, in the pressure cooker, add water, ginger, onions, the spices, bones, beef shanks and cook for 30 minutes after the pressure cooker has reached pressure. (To save energy, if you are using electric stove, you can turn off the heat 10 minutes before and just let the pressure cooker sits on the stove until it reaches 30 minutes. ) If you are using an ordinary pot, simmer under low fire for 3 hours.

4. To prepare the noodles, bring to boil water sufficiently to cover the noodles, add noodles and salt and wait for 3 minutes. Thereafter, strain off water and set aside.

5. Take out the beef tenderloin from the freezer and cut them into thin slices.

6. Line your soup bowls beside the stove and fill half of each bowl with rice noodles, mung bean sprouts, slices of raw beef, spring onions and chilli.

7. While lining your soup bowls, bring to boil the broth and pour 2-3 ladles of soup into the soup bowl. The hot broth will cook the raw beef slices.

8. Serve immediately and garnish with cilantro and mint leaves if desired.

Tips:

1. If you make with beef shanks using the pressure cooker, it will be very tender, and you can scoop some of it into the bowl with the noodles.

2. I like to add a teaspoon of garlic oil into the noodle soup, as it gives it a nice fragrant.

3. If the amount of work looks overwhelming to you, you don't have to make the preparation all at one go. You can also cook the beef broth in an automatic electric cooker overnight.

4. If you have a toddler who doesn't like beef, you can scoop out some of the broth and add cod fish and serve the soup and the cod fish with the rice noodles.

Nutritional Value:
The 5 spices used in this soup is very beneficial for health. The star anise seeds are an excellent source of many essential B-complex vitamins such as pyridoxine, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin. Pyridoxine (vitamin B-6) helps increase GABA neuro-chemical levels in the brain.
The spicy seeds are great source of minerals like calcium, iron, copper, potassium, manganese zinc and magnesium. Potassium in an important component of cell and body fluids that helps control heart rate and blood pressure. The star anise is also contain good amounts of anti-oxidant vitamins such as vitamin-C and vitamin-A.

Fennel seeds are concentrated source of minerals like copper, iron, calcium, potassium, manganese, selenium, zinc and magnesium. Copper is required in the production of red blood cells. Iron is required for red blood cell formation. Zinc is a co-factor in many enzymes that regulate growth and development, sperm generation, digestion and nucleic acid synthesis. Potassium in an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the powerful anti-oxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase.

The seeds indeed are storehouse for many vital vitamins. Vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C as well as many B-complex vitamins like thiamin, pyridoxine, riboflavin and niacin particularly are concentrated in the fennel seeds.

Fennel seeds have many health benefiting volatile essential oil compounds such as anethole, limonene, anisic aldehyde, pinene, myrcene, fenchone, chavicol, and cineole. These active principles in the fennel seeds are known to have antioxidant, digestive, carminative and anti-flatulent properties.

Fennel seeds are rich source of dietary fiber. 100 g seeds provide 39.8 g of fiber. Much of this fiber is metabolically inert insoluble fiber which helps increase bulk of the food by absorbing water throughout the digestive system and easing constipation condition.

In addition, dietary fibers bind to bile salts (produced from cholesterol) and decrease their re-absorption in colon, thus help lower serum LDL cholesterol levels. Together with flavonoid anti-oxidants, fiber composition of fennel helps protect the colon mucus membrane from cancers.

Fennel seeds indeed contain numerous flavonoid anti-oxidants like kaempferol and quercetin. These compounds are indeed function as powerful anti-oxidants by removing harmful free radicals from the body thus protect from cancers, infection, aging and degenerative neurological diseases.

Cloves are an excellent source of manganese, a very good source of dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K and omega-3 fatty acids and a good source of calcium and magnesium.

Cinnamon is an excellent source of manganese and a very good source of dietary fiber, calcium and iron.

Seasoning a high carb food with cinnamon can help lessen its impact on your blood sugar levels. Cinnamon slows the rate at which the stomach empties after meals, reducing the rise in blood sugar after eating. It is also helpful in lessening inflammation.

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Additional Information:
It is winter time now with heavy snow fall today... makes me crave for a hot bowl of noodle soup to keep warm.

I normally don't like food containing five-spice as I find the flavour too domineering, although the five-spices are believed to have a lot of health benefits. However, somehow five-spice just fit so well in Vietnamese beef noodle soup. It enhances the flavour rather than overpowering it.

My Significant Other normally doesn't like noodle soup, but this is the only exception. J loves the noodle soup, but he doesn't like beef so much, so I added cod fish, which is easier to eat, to his bowl of pho noodle soup instead. The cod fish also enhances the soup.

The best pho bo noodles I have ever tasted was in Paris' Chinatown. My parents came to visit me in Copenhagen for the first time in 2005 and we went for a trip to Paris. My father had a bowl of the pho bo noodles and fell in love with it. He was back in Copenhagen last year when J was born, and was looking around for the Vietnamese pho bo noodles soup. But there are very few Vietnamese restaurants in Copenhagen, and none near our place. None of the Vietnamese restaurants in Copenhagen serve pho bo as good as the one we tried in Paris. This year, we were back in Paris with my Significant Other and J, and it was the first noodle soup that my Significant Other gives a thumb up. Next year, when my parents visit me, I will be able to make my father his favourite pho bo beef noodle soup myself :-)

References:
http://steamykitchen.com/271-vietnamese-beef-noodle-soup-pho.html

http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/fennel-seed.html

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/beef-pho/Detail.aspx

https://youtu.be/Cnf90NG7ZTs?si=DdLfEf7mSk-82DHu

Close-up

The Pho beef noodle soup we had this year in Paris

This is the Pho beef noodle soup my parents had in 2005 in Paris

This is how the restaurant looks like in Paris' Chinatown

Healthy Cream of Butternut Squash & Ginger Soup/Butternut og Ingefærsuppe/灰胡桃状南瓜汤 [huī hú táo zhuàng nán guā tāng]

Adapted from Hip Pressure Cooking

Serve 4-6

Preparation & Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
- 1 large butternut (1.2kg) washed, peeled, de-seeded and cubed
- 1 large onion roughly chopped
- 3 thin slices of ginger
- 1 ltr water
- 1-2 TBS cooking oil
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds for garnish

Directions:
1. In the open pressure cooker (without top), heat oil and fry onions and ginger until golden.

2. Add salt and pepper and stir.

3. Add a handful of squash cubes to cover the bottom and fry to let it brown (approx. 10 minutes), stirring infrequently.

4. Add the resh of the squash and water.

5. Close the lid of the pressure cooker and turn the heat to high. When the cooker reaches pressure, lower flame (no. 2 on my stove) and count 15 minutes cooking time under pressure (under setting 1: low pressure).

6. Meanwhile toast pumpkin on a separate pan or in the microwave for 3 minutes under grill setting (as suggested by my friend Fon).

7. When time is up, bring the pot to the sink, pour cold water over the top and open the pot.

8. Puree the content with a stick blender.

9. Garnish with toasted pumpkin seeds and serve :-)

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Additional Information:
One of my colleagues was having butternut squash for lunch, and she told me how sweet it was. And I was recommended a very good website for pressure cooker www.hippressurecooking.com which has a butternut squash soup recipe. Thus, I wasted no time in trying it out. I made this butternut squash soup for dinner this evening from its recipe - simplified version without the sage, since I could not get it from the supermarket. But it still tasted superb!

J had 2 bowls and Daddy enjoyed it too.

In Denmark, you can get butternut squash from Superbest. The one above cost 18 DKK.

You can find the original recipe from the link below.

References:
http://www.hippressurecooking.com/2010/11/cream-of-butternut-squash-ginger.html

Italian Braised Beef Shanks/Osso Bucco/炖小牛腿肉[dùn xiǎo niú tuǐ ròu]

Serves 4

Preparation Cooking Time: 3 hours

Ingredients:
- 4 beef shanks
- Some flour to coat the beef shanks (about 4 TBS)
- 1 litre water
- 1-2 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 leek chopped white portion
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 carrots chopped
- 4 stalks celery chopped
- 2 tomatoes chopped
- 2 TBS cooking oil
- 1 cup (240ml) white wine (optional)
- 1-2 strig of rosemary (optional)
- A few strigs fresh or dried thyme (optional)
- 1 cup of frozen green peas (optional)
- Salt & pepper to taste

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

2. Braise the beef shanks by heating the pot with 1 TBS cooking oil and lightly fry the beef shanks for 1 minute on each side until brown.

3. Add half of the white wine and cook for 1 minute (optional).

4. Add water and simmer under low heat for 3 hours (no. 2 on my stove).

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

6. Heat oil on a separate pan with 1 TBS of cooking oil and fry garlic, leek, onions, dried thyme until brown, then add celeries, carrots and fry for 3 minutes and add salt.

7. Add the rest of the white wine and cook for 3 minutes to let it evaporate (optional).

8. Pour it into the pot with beef shanks and add tomatoes and rosemary.

9. After 3 hours, serve with rice, potatoes or couscous and a teaspoon for eating the marrow.

Pressure Cooking Method:
After step 4 above, add all ingredients into pressure cooker, cover lid and once pressure cooker reaches pressure according to your cooker, let it cook for 30-35 minutes (for me: no. 2 setting on pressure cooker and no. 2 on stove) .


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

2. If the vegetables in the stew are too overwhelming to finish, scope some of them out together with a little of the oil that is floating on top and blend in the blender to make a sauce to accompany the osso buco. I blended in also some fresh parsley and salt, and viola, a ready and healthy sauce is made immediately.

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.

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Additional Information:
I saw beef shanks in the Danish supermarket, and asked my Significant Other what it is. I have never tried it before, but my Significant Other’s mother made it sometimes, when he was a child. The meat is rather tough, but if you braise it, it gets so tender and juicy. The marrow is very nutritious and it is the best part of the beef shanks, but it is high in cholestrol. This dish is very time-consuming and I only make it during weekends. Osso buco means braised beef shanks in Italian. Besides fish, this is the only meat that J is willing to eat right now, as it is very tender after simmering for 3 long hours.

This dish cost around 125 DKK or 30 SGD for ingredients alone in the Danish supermarkets. The beef shanks alone cost 75 to 80 DKK or 18 SGD, but I can save money if I don’t add in the fresh herbs. Although without the fresh herbs, it will not be an authentic Italian dish, it is still very tasty, because of the flavour from the beef shanks. This dish is very similar to making Chinese soup. I am discovering that there are actually many things in common between Italian and Chinese cooking, apart from the different herbs used.

Most recipes call for using chicken stock, but in my opinion, the beef shanks give a lot of flavour already, and it is not necessary to use chicken stock. I tested making this dish without using the white wine, and it still tasted as good.

I like to make stew such as the Chinese beef stew or the italian Osso Bucco especially on weekend when we usually have a packed programme and I can't reach home in time to make dinner. With stew, I can start making dinner way ahead of time already in the morning when J is still sleeping. Then we can go out, and by dinner time when we reached home, we can just warm the food and eat dinner. I don't have to spend time making dinner.

一种炖小牛腿肉的意大利盘子；（用蔬菜、白酒及原汁汤料泡制的）燉小牛肉

References:
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-osso-buco