I have no idea what this dish is called. It’s a dish my mom made often and is something I yearn for once in a while. The ingredients are fairly simple. It’s not a fancy dish by any means and it doesn’t photograph well – most Filipino dishes don’t for some reason.

Sometimes I need some comfort food when I’m feeling a bit off, or when I miss my parents, like today.

Scott’s Something Beef

.75 to 1Lb of Beef, cut into small strips
4 cups Beef or Chicken Broth
2 cups of water
1.5 inch piece of Ginger, sliced into medallions
1/4 of a medium onion, thinly sliced
2 Garlic Cloves sliced 
5-6 Large Shiitake Mushrooms, sliced, stalks removed and discarded.
3 Tablespoons of Fish Sauce
8 Cherry Tomatoes, quartered
1 Green Onion, sliced
1 Tablespoon Oil
Salt & Pepper

In a pot, heat some oil and saute the thinly sliced onions, garlic and ginger medallions. Some salt and pepper too. Make sure you don’t burn the garlic. After about a minute or two, the fragrance of the three will be quite noticeable. Staying at medium-high heat, add the beef to the pot and start to cook the beef. Choose beef that has some fat to it, like chuck. Too lean a cut of beef and the beef will have a difficult time tenderizing during the cooking process in the broth. If you do get a lean cut, simply cut thinner strips.

Stir often. Once you start to see the redness of the beef disappear, add all the broth, 1 cup of water and the fish sauce. Once the broth starts to bubble around the edges, bring your heaat down to medium/medium-low. You will want to simmer this mixture for about 30-40 minutes. 

After simmering, you will notice that some of the broth has evaporated. Add 1 more cup of water. After a minute or two, taste. If you think it needs more salt, add 1 teaspoon of fish sauce. Add the shiitake mushrooms and quartered cherry tomatoes. Continue cooking for another 15 minutes.

Hopefully you made some rice during while the beef is cooking. Take your beef off the heat and serve over fresh jasmine rice!

Like I said earlier, its not a pretty dish, but I love the taste. I will experiment with it to see if I can add a “green” element to the dish to bring it some color and an additional texture without compromising the taste.

Enjoy!

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