Stewing is slow cooking, so it’s not the sort of thing you would want to do if you don’t have much time. One of my favourite stews is beef stew. I remember during my JC days many years ago when we went for adventure training at Pulau Tekong. The most memorable thing about the camp? The senior ladies’ beef stew.

The ingredients are quite complicated. Here, I would fry some onions first. I forgot the ginger, but you should have a few slices of that frying in the pot as well.

I’ve added a lot of ingredients, but I’ll turn the stuff in pot around so you can see them. Celery and carrots here.

We’ve also got potatoes and of course, our star of the dish, beef cubes. For seasoning, there’s black pepper, tomato puree and lots of bay leaves. You can either use salt or soya sauce to flavour the dish.

This is what it looks like when the mixture begins to boil. We have a long way to go. The beef cubes will start to “bleed” and the mixture starts to thicken. I simmered it for 3-4 hours.

Just scoop it up and enjoy. The beef would have the same texture as that in rendang. Goes very well with bread or rice. The kids will love it.

© Chan Joon Yee