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Sorry forgot to post my review
I liked it but didn't love it - however I think I over reduced the sauce and that and the fact that I think the star anise I used were too big made it overly flavoured of star anise and it was overpowering
If I were to do it again I would just use one of them
The carrot salad definately makes the dish - loved that bit
I also agree with fourarms it could use a veg but I think I would have it as a side (maybe pak choi) as it could get in the intense flavours

A&L I think you would get away without the garlic as there are so many other strong flavours in the dish esp with the salad

Hi

I made this -

Thought it was ok - very rich though, would make the salad again

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All ready & in the slow cooker. Hope it is nice as it cost me a lot to shop for!
For the salad I was thinking of using the thick side of the grater rather than all that julienne-ing, do you think that would work ok?
I got a pack of baby veg I'm going to steam over the rice (thai basmati).

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I am going to do the veg that way in future, it won't make a difference. I am raging I didn't think of it before as I had all that julienne-ing.

I am glad so many liked the recipe

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Dd1 04/06
Dd2 06/08

A big hit, thanks M!

eta I added a tsp of slaked cornflour when I was reducing the sauce.

and the grating worked fine - despite some clumsy grating injuries.

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I used the thick grater too and it was fine.

For those of you who say there's not enough veg, would you not consider the salad as your veg serving (carrots and scallions)?

Making this again now for the visiting inlaws. The first time it was outstanding but this time I didn't have chinese cooking wine so used Sherry and I'm nervous if it's going to be as great. I didn't make the salad before so doing that now. Just going to put the veg through the shredder in the magimix, hope that works out! Am nervous about putting it over the beef too, will it really be ok? really?! Am going to serve with mash and some mangetout too. I'm really really sick and dh and I had a big blow up row this morning (he's just finished nights so we always manage to fit in a row after night duties ) he's apologised profusely and I've ingraciously accepted so all in all this meal has to be good.

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Engol, I used sherry (I am also out of chinese wine) the last time I made it and didn't notice a difference. The salad is incredible over the beef. It really makes the dish. Hope everyone enjoys it

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Dd1 04/06
Dd2 06/08

I think mash is a bit of an odd combo Engol.
It is lovely with rice & the salad on top I promise.

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ok, thanks for that tip, might throw on pot of rice instead then.

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Def do it with rice and not mash. The salad really makes it; just put a little on top of the beef and the rest in a bowl.

Jenny

Well that was an unmitigated disaster. Well, for me anyway. Just as it was all coming together and ready for the table the baby (who is, along with me, very sick) decided he could wait no longer and HAD to go to bed. So dh hands him over to me and I very clearly hand over the completion of the dinner to dh. All he had to do was drain and rinse the rice and serve it up. The meat was ready as was the salad. So I spend 15 minutes trying to get the baby down but fail and come back down the stairs into the kitchen to find mil peeling potatoes. I say What's up? Dh says the rice didn't turn out (it's a stodgy mess in the pot). The kitchen is upside down. I spend all day making the house and kitchen as pristine as it can be. Prepare a delicious meal. Turn my back for 15 minutes and it's a load of bollox. I'm now in bed. I threw my hat at it and told him to eat what he likes. Apologised to my inlaws (in fairness my lovely mother in law looked horrified at me for working so hard anyway when I'm obviously sick and shooed me to bed) and took myself and the baby to bed. I've tried again to get him to sleep but he's been up for about 36 hours now without stopping, doesn't look like he has any plans to stop soon. So I'm in pj's surfing and moaning and they're downstairs eating what I can only assume was a delicious dinner but not as delicious as I'm sure it would have been if he'd just drained the rice.

That was a bit of a rambling unloading mess wasn't it? (The above paragraph I mean)

I'll try it again with rice and salad. Must go now and respond to my own food club dish which doesn't seem to be getting all that much of a turn

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Ah you poor thing Big effin eejit, mine would be the same.
Hope you & the baby get some sleep soon.

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p.s a photo, sorry flash is a bit ott.

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I completely forgot to post my review!

We loved it, loved everything about it! This will definitely be made again. I loved the salad with it and I thought DH would be dubious about the salad but he really liked it. I served it with Jasmine rice as it was the only rice I had at the time and it went really well with it.
I think I loved it too because it was the first 'solid' meal I'd had in a week of smoothies & soups due to braces!

Thanks for posting Putergirl, it's a big thumbs up from here

Ah engol, sounds like you had a really crap day.

What did they think of the dinner in the end?

And i will try your dish, trying to figure out what to serve the bittenballs with as it wouldn't be a complete dinner for dh! Reeckon the boys will like it.

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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe

I made this two weeks ago and forgot to post!! It was absolutely delicious, big thumbs up all round. We had two bigtime fussy eaters so sieved the sauce and reduced as neither of them will eat an onion. I served myself and DP the salad and egg fried rice to all. I think the salad really makes it, the other two looked really bland but they loved it there wasn't a scrap left, including DD!! Will defo make again but it is a real saturday dinner unless I invest in a slow cooker. Thanks for posting at least I made it now I have been looking at it in the Nigella book since November and never got around to it.

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We had this soon after it was posted (I'm only catching up with all the reviews and photos now) and everyone loved it. The salad with it was amazing, I had never come across that before. The beef shin was also a revelation to me, definitely my new favourite meat for slow cooking. It was so full of flavour and tender and with the crunchy salad it was just delicious.

Great photos murp - you're on a roll today with your reviews!

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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe

Thanks Clauds, I had a bit of a backlog!

Well we had this last night. It was really easy and quick to make. I couldn't get the Chinese cooking wine so used dry sherry. I also couldn't get star anise so just left it out. I served it with rice.

The kids ate earlier than us and I didn't have the salad ready so they had some of the carrots on top. DD2 would eat me if I came in a bowl so saying she ate it all is no indication but DD1 who took one look at it and said "yuck" then took one bite of it and then proceeded to eat it all.

The adults (my mum was over) also loved it. I thought I'd made enough for 2 dinners but after we all had seconds and DH had thirds and maybe even fourths it was almost all gone. I thought that the combination of the two things (the salad and the beef) is what really made it.

I used stewing beef because it was on special in Tesco but I'm definitely going to try the shin beef next time. There will be a next time.

Oh and it looked just like Murp's photos only better

xL.

This looks fab and has gotten great reviews so defo putting it on next weeks list, must see if I can get the shin beef esp as I am going to do it in the slow cooker!

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This is my favourite food club dish we had it last night having cooked ot in the slow cooker all day, the flavours were wonderful, the dog spent the day in the corner of the kitchen whining at the counter the smells obviously had her drooling too lol.

Now I used shin beef and I think for future I would use that cut in all stews it was so tender even my smallest who has issues with meat ate this as it flaked so easily. The salad really made it it was fresh and zingy.

My only problem was that I didnt reduce the amout of stock as I was cooking in the slow cooker, only saw that now as I logged in here, and I didnt get the reduction I would have prefered so will bear that in mind next time and there will defo be a next time!

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About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won't like you at all.
Rita Mae Brown

We had a very good friend visiting us for the weekend & I wanted to make something really nice for us for his arrival. So, having read all the reviews here I thought this was the perfect dish to kick start the weekend.

I cooked it on the hob in the morning and cooked it for about 4hrs althgether. I didn't reduce it till the reheating stage later that evening. I couldn't get chinese wine so used sherry, I also used stewing beef. I have to be honest & say I wasn't sure about it when I was smelling it as it cooked and maybe it was because it cooked for SO long I really didn't feel like eating it by the time I was serving it. Next time I might try cooking it the day before I need it iykwim? Also, although the beef was lean enough mine ended up with a lot of oil on the surface when it was cooked & I wasn't mad about that, so next time I would omit the oil at the start or at least reduce it a lot.

Buuuut....it tasted FAB! We all loved it and it was a huge hit with our guest. The salad was the star of the show and really made it special (much in the way the lemon/garlic/rosemary utterly transforms Jamie's Jool's favourite stew). I served it with white long grain rice. I will DEF make this again !

Dh is delighted because dd and I are away next week and he has a large portion of this in the freezer for his dinner one of the evenings!

Dh & our guest rated this an 11 out of 10 - outstanding was the general verdict! So huge thumbs up here from the Valex household. And I outdid myself by making the Fajitas the following night - dh & friend were in food heaven