well, this is not only an absolutely delicious dish with heaps of flavour and textures, but its also heaps of fun.
i pre-prepared all the ingredients, and served them buffet style… it made the meal super interactive, promoting lots of conversations… and ultimately meant my guests could help themselves to what they wanted, and the quantity of each ingredient they wanted.
there is a bit of prep in the broth, but once its in the pot it just simmers happily for a couple of hours.
the beef is stunning – a quick sear of the whole eye fillet and set aside in the freezer for a couple of hours to slice later… it does the rest of its cooking in the broth later on. i smoked it which gave the whole dish an extra depth of flavor but you dont have to, OR use smoke essence and avoid the nuisance of going through the smoking process.
serves 8
for the broth
3litre of water
250ml soy sauce
500ml shaoxing wine
100g coconut sugar
5 inches fresh ginger, peeled, finely sliced
10 cloves garlic, crushed
10 spring onions, roughly chopped
3tsp sesame oil
6 star anise
3 red chillis (i used birds eye – reduce the chillis if you dont like the chilli kick)
3 cinnamon sticks, halved
3 oranges, peel (and roughly chop the remaining fruit to add later)
salt
for the beef
1.2 kg whole beef fillet
manuka chips = to smoke OR smoke essence (or you dont have to smoke at all!)
salt
garnishes
kelp noodles (for 8 people i used 2 packets), rinse these and put in a serving bowl – no cooking required!
8 eggs – i did these at 63deg for 1 hour in their shells… but poached would be just as good!
12 shallots, sliced thinly and fried to crispy and brown
3 cups sugar snap peas – ends trimmed and sliced in half lengthways
4 cups roughly chopped coriander
mung bean sprouts
for the broth
place all the ingredients in a large pot, bring to the boil and then leave to simmer for an hour. after an hour, roughy chop the insides of the oranges and add to the pot. simmer for another hour and then taste. add more soy if it needs a bit more salt.
sit aside until ready to serve.
for the beef
heat frypan to high. season the beef and then sear the fillet beef on all sides until brown (max of 1 min per side).
remove the fillet from the pan and leave to rest for 5 mins.
either smoke the fillet, or rub with the smoke essence. place glad wrap on the ground then firmly roll the beef into the glad wrap.
place into the freezer for 2 hours.
to serve
strain the broth and put back into the large pot. put it back on the element and bring it back to the boil.
while the broth is re-heating, remove the beef from the freezer. remove the glad wrap and using a sharp knife, thinly slice the beef. it will be blue! this is how its meant to be – the beef is a superior cut and OK to be served this way. when you place the beef in the broth, it will cook a bit more too 🙂 place the sliced beef on a serving plate.
if poaching the eggs, do this now. alternatively soft boil these in their shells and place in a bowl to serve.
put each of the garnishes in separate serving bowls.
line them up in a row, and let your guests walk down the line and create their own beautiful bowls of food!
alternatively, serve it up for them 🙂
ReplicATE It. 