Spicy Coco Milk Braised Beef Adobo
Speed - 97%
Simplicity - 98%
Tastiness - 99%
98%
Must-try!
Perfectly tender beef in a rich, creamy, nutty gravy. This may yet be your favorite take on adobo. The "coco" part is from the coconut milk, and will give the creamy and nutty flavor to the sauce. I like to make mine extra spicy sometimes by adding a few different pepper and the flavors of different styles of peppers can add new layers of flavor to your dish.
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Spicy Coco Milk Braised Beef Adobo
Ingredients
Method
- Marinate beef in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and black peppercorns overnight.
- Take them out of the marinade, pat dry, and season lightly with salt.
- Pour about 1/4 cup of the coconut milk into a pan and heat until the oils and curd split.
- Allow the curds to toast a bit and set aside.
- Sear the beef in the remaining oil.
- Add in the marinade, beef stock, and bring to a boil.
- Transfer to the slow cooker, adding in the remaining coconut milk, bay leaves, jalapenos, and beef.
- Cook on low for 8 hours.
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This is indulgence. It's adobo totally elevated with the bold flavor of beef and the nutty richness of coconut milk. Nothing too fancy, it starts off with the same marinade of vinegar, soy sauce, and spices. I've used coconut vinegar for this recipe though for consistency with the coconut milk that we'll be using, but white vinegar will work just fine. Haven't tried it yet, but I guess red wine vinegar in an adobo would also be interesting.
I used beef brisket here for its fat content. It is a braised dish, and using a very lean cut of meat would be as flavorful but rather dry. After sitting in the marinade overnight, you have to pat them dry before seasoning to make sure that they'll sear out perfectly in the pan. You'll want a quick sear to lock-in all those juices, and skipping on this step would result in your beef slowly steaming in the marinade, leaking out all of its juices. Go easy on the salt. That soy sauce in the marinade already has a fair amount of salt imparted into the beef.
Next would be searing the beef. You could use a simple vegetable oil for this, but again for consistency of flavors, I wanted coconut oil. No need to buy any though. Heat about a quarter cup of the coconut milk in a pan until it splits. You can start with a higher flame, reducing it when you see the oil starting to be rendered out. Also, stir the contents of the pan constantly. The curds will quickly burn and turn bitter if you don't. Go slow. What we're trying to achieve here are perfectly toasted coconut milk curds and a clarified coconut oil which we'll use for searing.
Strain out as much of the toasted curds as you could before putting in the beef. Reserve these curds for topping the dish later. Adjust the flame to high and allow the pan to heat up for this next step. You don't want the beef to cook through. A good brown crust on them would be enough.
Next, add in the marinade and quickly scrape the pan for those burnt pieces. Again, think flavor. You may add in a bit of beef stock here if the marinade evaporates too quickly.
That's it. Put everything into the slow cooker and let all those flavors come together. I set mine on low for 8 hours ending up with tender beef that doesn't shred easily. This is a type of recipes that I like to cook extra because it fits perfectly into Tupperware and and makes great leftover lunches. For a bigger slow cooker, I love the Frigidaire 7-quart professional, or you can go full throttle and get the Gourmia 8.5 quart SlowSmart. Those are my favorite large slow cookers of the 50+ I've tested this year.
Back to the beef! I like cooking most of my meat this way as I find it boring to eat meat that lost its texture with overcooking. This is entirely personal preference and you can go for 10 hours here if you like yours fall-apart tender.
The beef will come out in this awesome coconut gravy that's really creamy. Those jalapenos and the tang from the vinegar will perfectly cut this richness. If you want a thicker sauce yo may reduce this further in a pan.
We all know that adobo is best served over rice. Pairing it with pickled vegetables, in this case papaya would be perfect.
Spicy Coco Milk Braised Beef Adobo
Ingredients
Method
- Marinate beef in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and black peppercorns overnight.
- Take them out of the marinade, pat dry, and season lightly with salt.
- Pour about 1/4 cup of the coconut milk into a pan and heat until the oils and curd split.
- Allow the curds to toast a bit and set aside.
- Sear the beef in the remaining oil.
- Add in the marinade, beef stock, and bring to a boil.
- Transfer to the slow cooker, adding in the remaining coconut milk, bay leaves, jalapenos, and beef.
- Cook on low for 8 hours.
Slow Cooker Pork and Mushroom Carbonnade
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