As the weather got a little chillier we thought we would have a stew but I fancied a lighter flavour and saw a Vietnamese stew recipe and thought it was a great idea. It worked really well and the Asian flavours added such a nice flavour. We used heirloom carrots and had it as a one pot and we didn’t need anything else with it. It was nice to have a bit of a change from a traditional British stew it added a nice change as we are coming out of winter.

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

• 1kg beef shin, cut into cubes
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 2 lemongrass stalks, finely chopped
• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp palm sugar (or dark brown sugar)
• ______
• 4 banana shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 large tomatoes, chopped
• 4 dried red chilli’s, crumbled
• 2 tbsp sun dried tomato paste
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 star anise
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• 600ml hot beef stock
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil

Directions

1. Combine the beef, flour, spice, pepper, lemongrass, garlic, soy sauce and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Leave to marinate for at least an hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 160C fan and have all your vegetables prepared.
3. Put the oil in the casserole and heat over medium high heat. Once the oil is hot, lower the temperature to medium-low and brown the beef cubes.
4. Add the shallots and chillies and fry for a couple of minutes.
5. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, carrots, cinnamon stick, star anise, kaffir lime leaves and stock and bring slowly to a rolling simmer.

Cover the casserole and transfer to the oven. Cook for 2 hours until meat is tender