Mauie Flores

There's something in the aroma of star anise that we love so much. I put sangke or star anise on any soy sauce based viand if I want it to taste oriental. For example, to make Chinese Adobo, I cook my regular chicken or pork adobo but add sugar and star anise to the mixture.

Today, it is not my Big Boy who had Korean Beef Stew for lunch. The Bigger Boy, who works in Makati, bored with cafeteria food, and is super thankful for the microwave oven in his office's pantry, had this sweet dish. What we had was just the left-over dish from our dinner last night.

I cooked the dish last night because it takes so much time in making the beef tender. I do not use a pressure cooker anymore after the mini-accident that my helper had with our pressure cooker. After an hour of boiling the beef ribs over low fire, I added a cup of soy sauce, sugar, star anise, ginger, onions, sesame seeds, a little sesame oil to the beef stock. I let it boil for another hour until the mixture is reduced and then added a tablespoon of cornstarch to thicken the sauce a little.