Self-heating Chinese language (Cantonese) Braised Beef Stew With Potato Assessment

The meal’s package deal was fairly giant because it was a big rectangular, black plastic bowl, one thing that was wanted to make use of with the flameless ration heater that was included.  The outer packaging was lined in clear plastic wrap with a printed cardboard sleeve beneath exhibiting all the product image, title, and particulars. 

There are various totally different recipes for this dish, however frequent substances for it embrace: beef brisket, daikon radish, garlic, inexperienced onions, soy sauce, darkish soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine (Chinese language rice wine) or dry sherry, brown sugar, Chinese language five-spice powder, and star anise.  It’s a sluggish cooked stew to make the meat brisket mushy and tender and it typically has beef tendon too.  I’ve included hyperlinks to a few recipes under.

Aspect view of the package deal.

Backside of the cardboard sleeve with substances and preparation instructions.

The preparation instructions up shut.  They had been somewhat imprecise for a way a lot water so as to add to issues, one thing that’s vital for flameless ration heaters.

The large black tub with its lid.  The opening within the center will let steam out.

There have been a pile of packets inside together with a meal tray.

It is a bag of water for rehydrating the dehydrated rice.  It even says I’m a bag of water.  I really did not use it and manually measured the quantity of contemporary water to rehydrate the rice.  It was odd they gave this one packet of water, however nothing for the soup or the heater.

Freeze-dried egg drop soup.

The flameless ration heater component.  Often iron and magnesium that reacts with water to create warmth and steam.

Bag of dehydrated white rice.

A retort pouch of beef stew sauce, beef, and veggies.

The soup, rice, and stew laid out on the serving tray.

The heating component on the backside of the bathtub.  I’ve added water to the rice and the soup.

I poured water on the heater to simply cowl it after which positioned the tray on high. The heating response will kick off in a number of moments.  These are like MRE heaters that get very popular.

I let the heater run on a picket floor I wasn’t fearful about (DON’T use ration heaters on a pleasant wooden desk – they get scorching!). Additionally use it in a nicely ventilated house.  The bathtub will get scorching so watch out holding it and steam can leak via the lid edges.

You let it run for 10 to fifteen minutes – the heating response slows.  This heats the water within the the meals and slowly rehydrates the rice.

The meal prepares itself after reheating.  I did not scent a lot off the soup, however the stew smelled like anise, soy, rice wine, and many others.  It smelled like Cantonese beef stew.  The rice got here out mushy with a number of chewier, however not crunchy, grains.  This type of rice is never fluffy (a number of the Japanese rice cups are fairly good although).  I blended the stew into the rice and dug in.  It tasted just like the savoury, beefy stew I used to be anticipating.  It wasn’t spectacular, however it was fairly good for one thing that was pre-packaged.  There have been little bits of soy protein to simulate beef and the potatoes had been mushy, however not mushy.  It was too unhealthy it wasn’t daikon, however I am unsure how nicely daikon would have held up underneath these identical packaging strategies. The egg drop soup was gentle and salty – much less salty in the event you add extra water.  Total, this was a very fascinating shelf-stable packaged meal.  It felt overpackaged to me as a consequence of all the plastic elements, however many of those immediate stews / soups in tubs from China are like this.  I do not purchase many of those for this identical cause, however it was one thing I wished to attempt.

Closeup of the rice and potatoes.