Sweet and Sour Beef – More German than Chinese

This weekend my friend Suzanne asked me how my eggs and cabbage recipe really tasted because it was the worst looking food photo she had ever seen. I agreed that the picture was bad, but that the flavor was good. The picture did look exactly like the dish, not that appetizing.

I’m writing this recipe before I take the picture and I hope that it is a good picture because I just tasted this dish and it is yummy. Sometimes when I make up a new dish that has a long cooking time I am just winging it and hope for the best. This is one of those times, but I am glad that I wrote it down before I forgot what I put in it because it is a keeper.

3 pounds of stew beef or short ribs

3 yellow onions

6 cloves of garlic

A knob of ginger about the size of an egg -peeled

1 c. Sherry

¼ c. soy sauce

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

¼ c. sugar

1 c. beef broth

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

1T. Coriander

¼ t. cinnamon

1 bottle of chili sauce

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Using a Dutch oven, heat the pan on the stove on high heat. Spray with Pam. Salt and pepper the raw beef and brown in batches so you don’t crowd the meat in the pan. When all sides of the meat are browned, remove from the pot and set aside until all the meat is browned.

Put the onions, garlic and ginger in the food processor and pulse until it is chopped. Add to the Dutch oven and turn the heat down to medium and cook for five minutes. Add the sherry, soy, vinegar, sugar, broth, and spices and bring to a boil.

Add the meat back to the pan and pour the chili sauce into the pan. Cover with lid and place in the oven.

Cook for two to three hours depending on the size and toughness of your meat. It should be fork tender. Remove the pot from the oven and take the meat out of the pan and put it in a container covered to keep it warm.

Put the Dutch oven with the liquid on the stove and with the top off simmering it for 30 minutes to reduce the sauce by at least half. Spoon the sauce over the meat to serve.