Cooking with Dr. Monkey

This episode: Braised Beef in Garlic Sauce.

This recipe is a bastardization of a recipe I got out of a Chinese cookbook. We used to have this quite often but since my heart attack we have it maybe once every two months or so.
I start by buying a small roast that doesn't have too much fat running through it.

Then I slice the meat and I sear it in a hot pan. I use regular canola oil in the pan and I put cracked black pepper in the oil so that it sticks to the meat when I sear it.
While the meat is being seared I diced up one small onion, sliced up a two inch long by one inch thick knob of ginger, and I peeled about eight garlic cloves.

After I finished searing all the meat I put it back in my pan and I also tossed in the garlic cloves, the sliced ginger, and diced onion. Then I added about three tablespoons of soy sauce and a table spoon and a half of oyster sauce. I stir it all around and then I added two and a half cups of water.

I then turned the heat down to low, put a lid on the pan, and let it slow cook for about 2 and a half hours. As long as you have water covering the beef then the longer you cook this the better. I've cooked it for three to four hours before and it always comes out great. Check the water level every 30 to 45 minutes.
After two hours I put my potatoes on to boil and I made a salad. I also took the lid off the pan and I added a diced yellow bell pepper and three finely sliced green onions. At this point I took a wooden spoon and I smashed the garlic cloves and mixed then through out the sauce. Then I added two or three tablespoons of flour to thicken the sauce into a gravy. I let it simmer for about 15 more minutes.Then I plated it with mashed potatoes and that green salad I made. Let's eat!

As I said earlier we used to eat this quite a bit, especially in the winter months, but now we have it far less often and when I made it for the first time after my open heart surgery after months of eating chicken and salmon Sparky nearly wept with joy. She's been a great sport and has had no problem adjusting her diet along with me but sometimes she still likes a bit of red meat and since I value my life I gladly make her some dishes with red meat in them once in a while. But I make sure to use red meat that is not dripping with or riddled through with fat.