Spicy Pulled Beef

A sandwich filling? ✅

A wrap stuffing? ✅

A ramen topping? ✅

A sauce for rice? ✅

A base for soup? ✅

Serve it up in a bowl and eat by the spoonful? ✅✅✅

Such is the versatility of this pulled beef. 

Good things take time and that's the same with this dish. You have to exercise patience. 

INGREDIENTS

1.5kg beef (cut into large chunks) 

Salt

5 tablespoons oil

3 tablespoons tomato paste

6 sundried tomato halves (optional) 

10 garlic cloves 

2 dried limes

3 bay leaves 

5 attarugu (scotch bonnet) 

1 small fresh ginger 

2 small onions

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon coriander seeds

½ teaspoon black peppercorns

½ teaspoon red peppercorns

2 tablespoons dark soy sauce

3 tablespoons sugar 

Water (enough to cover the meat + some more to top up when the liquid evaporates) 

PROCEDURE 

1. Get a heavy bottomed large pot or sauce pan that is at least 6litre capacity on your stove on medium high heat. Pour the oil into the pot and let it get hot. 

2. Salt your beef chunks heavily. 

3. When your oil is hot enough, sear your beef in batches. We want to get each peace well browned with a good crust on it. Don't overcrowd  the pan as this will make the beef steam instead of sear. We don't want any liquid to ooze out of the meat at this point. 

Brown in batches and be setting aside the browned beef in a deep bowl that will hold any juices it releases while resting. 

4. Cook the tomato paste in the leftover oil in your pan after searing the beef. This will help cook off the sharp tang of the paste a little. Cook for about 3 minutes then pour about a cup of water into the pot to deglaze (get all the meat juices and seasoning that have browned and stuck to the bottom and sides of the pan dissolved). 

5. Add all your other ingredients including the seared beef chunks making sure to add water last. Pour the water until it covers all the meat. Mix well with a spoon then cover and let this cook on medium low for 4 to 6 hours. Depending on how tough the meat is. 

Be checking after every hour to see the level of the cooking liquid and top up if needed. {{DO NOT STIR. STIRRING HASTENS MOISTURE LOSS. YOUR BEEF IS LIKELY TO BURN IF YOU STIR IT UNNECESSARILY. JUST LET IT DO ITS THING}} 

By the 4th hour you should poke some of the meat to check its doneness. It is done when the meat falls apart easily. 

6. When your beef is cooked through and falling apart, pick out all the pieces and set aside. Then strain the remaining cooking liquid using a sieve making sure to catch the liquid in a cup. Get rid of the chunks of aromatics and leaves. By this time the onions have long since disintegrated so you won't find any onion chunks in that.

7. Use 2 forks or any shredding device you prefer to shred your beef chunks into threads. The meat is very tender at this point that you can do it with your fingers if it was not hot.

 

8. Put back your pot on fire then pour in the strained liquid, adjust seasoning (here you can add stock cubes or msg {if you so wish}, add 3 tablespoons of sugar and stir until it dissolves.

9. Put all your beef threads into the pot with the strained and seasoned cooking liquid. Mix and enjoy however you want. 

That's that on making pulled beef. 

If you like instead of doing all this stove top, after searing and getting everything into your pot with the lid on, get it up to a boil then place in an already preheated oven to cook low and slow. This method you'd hardly even need to top up your cooking liquid, as it's more of a simmer when it's in the oven and there's little to no moisture loss. 

If you are in a time crunch and need to get this fast you can also just turn everything into a pressure pot and cook hard and fast after the searing stage. Make sure you follow the instructions on your pressure pot so as not to over fill it. With this method at most you'd be done in 2 hours max. 

My family and I enjoyed this as bao buns filling 

If you have any question please don't hesitate to leave it in the comment section and I'll be sure to respond. 

Thank you 

Enjoy💕