Tomato Beef Stew-using instant pot
When I’m craving for something slightly soupy and warm, I like to make this tomato beef stew. The best part is I don’t need a lot of ingredients. While this tomato beef stew takes a bit longer to cook, I use an instant pot to cut down cook time. If you don’t have an instant pot, slow cooker, pressure cooker or even stove top with a heavy bottom pot works well. This is also great to cook large batches and reheated for a quick lunch or dinner.
Ingredients
This tomato beef stew is made with 2 main ingredients: tomato and beef flank. I also added some aromatics: bay leaf, star anise, cinnamon stick, dry chili, scallions and ginger. To increase the flavour of the stew I made a sauce using ketchup, soy sauce and dark soy sauce. I added some sugar for some sweetness.
The tomatoes have acidity to them so it helps to tenderize the beef along with the slow braising. The natural sugar and flavour of tomatoes (mother nature MSG) bring so much flavour to the beef that you don’t want to add a lot of competing flavours into it. The added sugar helps to give the dish a slightly sweeter flavour so it’s not too astringent from the tomatoes.
The soy sauce just gives it more depth of flavour by adding more unami to it.
How to make tomato beef stew
Prepping
First cut the beef flank into small stew sizes. If the meat was bought in Asian supermarket, they might have some tough tendons in between the meat so take it off. It’s tough when cooked.
If you noticed in a lot of Chinese cooking, we always like to prep the meat through boiling or soaking in water. The reason is to get rid of any unpleasant taste of the meat (like the blood inside the meat). However overcooking or over-soaking can decrease the actual beef flavour. For this dish I soak the beef for a short period of time-10 minutes.
Cut the tomatoes into similar size. Combine ketchup, soy sauce, dark soy sauce. Place all the aromatics onto a small bowl/plate, set aside.
Making the stew
In a pot, add some oil and melt some rock sugar in it on medium high. Once the sugar is melted, add in the beef. Stir fry the beef until there are no red left on the meat. Then add in the half the tomato to let it simmer for 1-2 minutes. Add in the aromatics, sauce (ketchup, soy sauce, dark soy sauce) and water.
Cover and let it simmer for 40-45 minutes. If using pressure cooker or instant pot, transfer everything into the instant pot and put on pressure cook for 25 minutes.
Once the beef is tender and the tomatoes have combined into the sauces, add in the rest of the tomato and simmer for another 10 minutes until the tomatoes are soft. Add in cornstarch water to thicken up the stew. Serve with rice.
Pro-tip
- If you are buying beef flank from Asian grocery store, there will have a hard tendon in between, take it off or else it will be very tough when cooked.
- Soak the beef to get rid of some unpleasant flavour.
- If cooking on stove top, use a heavy bottom like a dutch oven and cook on medium to medium low for 40-45 minutes until the beef is tender.
- If you using instant pot, sauté the beef inside the instant pot and tomatoes. Add everything else into the instant pot and cook on high pressure for 20 minutes.
- Add less water than you think you need because there are a lot of water in tomatoes
- Save half the tomatoes and add tomatoes near the end so it can maintain its shape. If you add all the tomatoes in the beginning by the time the stew is done, the tomatoes will have disintegrated.
Tomato beef stew
Equipment
- instant pot/ pressure cooker optional
Ingredients
- 1½ lbs Beef flank
- 5-6 tomatoes
Sauce
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 3 tbsp ketchup
Aromatics
- 1 bay leaves
- 5 dry chilli
- 1 star anise
- ⅓ stick of cinnamon
- 3 slices of ginger
Other ingredients
- 3 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar or ¼ cup rock sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 1½ cups water 475ml- lessen if you put more tomatoes
Cornstarch mixture
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp water
Instructions
Prep
- Cut the beef into stew size chunk. Soak the beef in a bowl with some room temp water for 10 minutes.
- Cut the tomatoes into similar size to beef, set aside.
- Combine ketchup, soy sauce and dark soy sauce.
- Find all the aromatics and place onto a plate or bowl.
- Drain the beef and set aside. Tip: paper towel dry the beef.
Making the stew
- In a pot or instant pot, put some oil and put in sugar or rock sugar. Heat it on medium until the sugar dissolve. Add the beef in and stir fry until there are no red left on the beef.
- Add in half tomatoes.
- Add in the sauce prepared earlier.
- Add all the aromatics, water and salt. Close the lid if using instant pot
- Pressure cook for 25 minutes. If cooking on stove top, cover and simmer for 40 minutes.
- Once done, release the steam. Open the lid and discard the aromatics. Add in the rest of the tomatoes and put on sauté.
- If cooking on stove top, discard the aromatics, add rest of the tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add in cornstarch water to thicken the stew.
- Serve with rice and sprinkle some green onions as a topping.
