Slow Cooked Beef Brisket

Okay .. the classic way that my mom taught me how to make it.

Ingredients:
- piece of beef brisket (a reasonable piece is needed as it 'shrinks' as it cooks)
- oyster sauce
- light soy sauce
- dark soy sauce
- 1 star anise - this is very potent.
- chinese cooking wine
- a few black chinese mushrooms - washed
- bean curd sticks
- dicon radish (white radish)
- a few thick slices of ginger
- dried tangerine peel (optional - I don't like the taste of this so I don't use it but technically you should).
- vegetable oil
- water

Steps:
1. Cut beef into cubes.
2. On medium to high heat, add a little bit of oil in a medium size pot. When the pot is nice and hot, add the beef and sear it.
3. Once the beef is browned on all sides, add a tbsp of oyster sauce, 1/2 tbsp of light soy, 1/2 tbsp of dark soy, and a tbsp of cooking wine.
* Note: I generally eyeball the quantities - keeping in mine the salt content of each of the ingredients and the amount of beef you are cooking.
4. add enough water to cover the meat and stir to get the flavour bits from the bottom of the pan.
5. add the mushrooms, ginger slices, and star anise.
6. give it one last stir and then cover. Bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat and let it simmer for 4 hours.
8. Always check on the meat and make sure the liquid does not evaporate. If it does, just add water to cover the meat. No need to add any more soy, oyster, or wine.
9. After 3 hrs of cooking, start a separate pot of boiling water and cook the bean curd sticks until tender.
10. Drain the bean curd and put it into the brisket pot. Let the bean curd absorb the sauce for the next hour while it continues to cook.
11. When the cooking is done, take a piece of meat out and check for tenderness. The meat should practically fall apart.
12. Serve with rice noodles or rice.

This may seem like a lot of work but the end result is tasty.

Keep in mind that you can taste after 2 hrs of cooking. Making mistakes is all part of the cooking process. I've forgotten the ginger once, and the first time I tried making beef brisket, I cooked it for 2.5 hrs and the meat was still very tough. :(

I've also heard that you can use Chou Hou paste but I've never used it before. I prefer my mom's method. :)