Nilaga (Filipino beef stew)

Serves 8 to 10

This Filipino beef stew is such a nice warm hearty winter comfort food. My good friend made this for us probably a year or two ago and it made such a good impression I've been thinking (dreaming) about it on occasion and am so glad I finally got around to asking for the recipe and giving it a go myself! It takes a while to cook, but relatively little work and so worth the wait to eat the fall-apart meat and the scrumptious broth. It was so simple to make and easy to bulk up with veggies and stretch it for a few days (or even freeze for later).

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 4 hours

Ingredients

2 kg osso bucco

2 large onions, cut into eighths

3 large carrots

3 large potatoes

1/2 cabbage (or Chinese cabbage)

Extra vegetables (optional): 3 large corn chopped into 3cm chunks, 1 head of cauliflower, mushrooms, 300 g green beans

4 to 5 Tbsp fish sauce

1 tsp chicken stock powder

salt and pepper

Serve with cooked rice and fish sauce for dipping 

Method

1. In a big pot, fill with 2 litres of boiling water and place the osso bucco in. Boil for 5 minutes. Rinse out the meat and the pot to 'clean' the scum. Return the meat to the pot and add in 3 litres of water with the onion and bring to the boil, then simmer for 2 to 3 hours until the meat is soft and falling apart.

2. Cut the remaining vegetables into 2 to 3cm chunks; carrots, potatoes, corn, cauliflower, mushrooms, green beans. Finely slice the cabbage.

3. Add the potatoes, carrot, corn and cauliflower and boil for 20 minutes.

4. Add the cabbage, mushrooms and green beans. Season with fish sauce, chicken stock powder, salt and pepper and boil for another 10 minutes until the vegetables are soft and cooked through. 

5. Serve hot, with rice. Prepare a small dish of fish sauce for dipping the meat in.