Braised beef shank

This dish can be served cold as an appetizer or hot with noodle or rice. Remove the beef from the fridge about 30 mins before serving as an appetizer and pour heated sauce onto beef. Reheat beef and sauce when served as a main dish with noodle or rice.

Ingredients:
1kg beef shank (pick the small whole muscle, about 500g)
2 cm piece of ginger, thinly sliced
2 sprigs of spring onions, whole and some thinly sliced for garlish
1 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp light soy sauce
1 piece of star anise
1 tsp Szechwan peppercorn
3 tbsp wine (optional)
Roasted sesame oil (about 2 tsp)

Method:
1. Blanch the beef in a pan of boiling water for 4 to 5 mins. Rinse the beef. Bring another pan of water to a boil, add half of the ginger, spring onions and 2 tbsp wine. Place beef into pan and cook for 15 mins. Keep the cooking liquid.

2. In a separate pot, add rest of the ginger, sugar, soy sauce, star anise and wine. Place beef in the pot and add enough cooking liquid to cover the beef and bring to a boil. Then simmer over low heat for about 1 hour until beef is tender.

3. Remove the beef and drain. Rest the beef on the chopping board until it is cool. Cut the beef into very thin slices and serve with the sauce and sesame oil.