I have been buying these packs of New Zealand premium beef brisket slices…
…prepared and packed by some place here in Sibu. This is so convenient – no need to buy those huge hard-as-a-rock frozen chunks and go through the chore of slicing them. Incidentally, the price may vary a little according to the weight of the meat inside.
My missus had taken at least two packs to cook already – I can’t remember what we had the first time but the second time around, she just defrosted and deep-fried and she complained that the meat was tough. I can recall quite clearly that no, it was not fall-off-the-bone tender but it was quite all right, not really that tough but I guess this would be best for curries, stews and soups where you can simmer for a longer time.
Anyway, the other day, I took a pack and I plucked a papaya leaf…
…from my garden. I pounded the leaf and mixed it well with the meat after I had defrosted it and I let it stand for over an hour.
Be forewarned that you must not over-tenderise the meat. Once I bought the bottled papaya juice, a meat tenderiser and that morning, I marinated the slabs of beef with it for our barbecue that night. Everyone was complaining that the beef did not have the texture of meat, more like tofu and of course, it was not nice at all.
Anyway, back to what I did that morning, I rinsed the meat well to get rid of the bits of the leaf and cut it into smaller bite-size slices before throwing it into the slow cooker together with one big Bombay onion and a handful of black peppercorn…
…and I turned it on. When the juices had come out of the meat, I added water, potatoes – pre-peeled and cut into smaller chunks, and a bit of spices (star anise, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon) and left it to boil and cook.
When it was done, I sprinkled a bit of seasoning and added the chopped spring onions from my garden (no daun sup/Chinese parsley available at the moment) and my beef soup…
…was ready to be served!
Yes, it was so very nice – the soup was very flavourful and I don’t know whether it was the papaya leaf or the slow cooker or both but the meat was very tender. I sure would want to stock up on some more of those packs of beef brisket slices for use as and when the need arises.
SWEE HUNG (2.316161, 111.840441) is located along Jalan Ruby, in the block of shops on the right – next to a hair salon at the extreme end…and on the other end, to the left is the Kim Won Chinese Medical Store and Mini-supermarket.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Wow, the beef soup looks good. Add some carrot would be nice.
I’m following the way my mum used to cook it – she never added carrots, just potatoes. Dunno why. And she never added those spices too – maybe my dad did not like those. The soup got even sweeter the following day, whatever was left of it…so very nice.
Michelle’s dad likes beef brisket, especially beef brisket noodle soup. Your mum’s recipe is 👍.
In clear soup, just like the local beef noodles. We love those a lot more than the Taiwan ones. Often, there is beauty in simplicity.
This dish is very new to me… papaya leaves… I heard they are good to boost up our platelet cells.. esp for dengue fever patients…
Yes, a miracle cure for dengue fever!!! Give it a try, nice clear beef soup!
Heard of using papaya leave juice but haven’t tried it before.
May be difficult to get the leaves if you do not have a tree but I saw somewhere you can use the green fruit too.
Okay, learned something new today – to use papaya leave to tenderise meat. Your beef brisket definitely look good. I would love to have a bowl.
The only time I cooked beef was to make steak for myself as the husband and the boys don’t eat beef.
Oh? Do they eat lamb? I’m fine with beef – depending on how it’s cooked buy if grilled, I prefer lamb.
See my reply to Kathy – you can use the green fruit too. Click the link to read up on it.
Always looking for quality and convenience.
Yes, for so long now, we had difficulty getting good beef. No fresh local ones, even the imported NZ and Australian ones were as tough as leather…and those from places like India had that offensive smell. Glad that we are getting nice beef these days, pre-cut, pre-sliced, pre-packed.
I’ve heard of this papaya trick but I usually just chuck it in pressure cooker instead 😀
I have a slow cooker but not a pressure cooker. My missus has this phobia of it exploding, probably from a bad previous experience.
Oh thats something new, I never had use papaya leaf to tenderize only pineapples
Oh? Pineapples work too? But I do not have that in my garden.