Chinese-Style Beef Stir-Fry

How to prepare and marinate the meat

1. Homemade beef stir-fry with vegetables and sauce will be juicier if the meat has not been frozen and thawed. That way the pieces of meat stay juicy after frying. I recommend using plenty of juicy bell pepper in the dish. You can also make it hot, if you like, by adding chili and freshly ground black pepper.

   

2. Trim and slice the beef. Carefully remove the membranes of connective tissue and any leftover fat, as they don’t belong in the dish. There is no need to pound the meat. With a sharp knife, cut the meat across the grain into strips 6-8 cm long. If the steaks are thick, you can also cut them through their thickness.

   

3. Marinate the meat with ginger; without marinating, it will be tough. Put the pieces of beef in a deep bowl. Peel a piece of ginger root and grate it. Mix 1.5 tbsp each of rice mirin and light soy sauce, then add 1 tbsp of cornstarch (10 g) and 1.5 tbsp of sesame oil. Stir thoroughly until smooth and pour over the meat with the ginger. Leave the beef to marinate at room temperature for 30 mins.

   

How to prepare the vegetables and sauce

1. While the beef marinates, prepare all the vegetables for the stir-fry. Remove the seeds from the sweet and hot peppers. Cut the juicy bell peppers lengthwise into thick strips. Cut the hot pepper pods into slices or rings. Peel the onion and cut it into thick strips, or even into 6-8 wedges.

   

   Instead of bell pepper, broccoli or cauliflower, asparagus and all sorts of green vegetables, such as peas, green beans and celery stalks, are often stir-fried. It is important that the vegetables keep their shape and stay crisp during the short frying.

2. Mix the sauce ahead of time, while the meat marinates, because there will be no time for it during frying. In a cup, combine 1.5 tbsp each of light soy sauce and mirin and 0.5-1 tsp of sugar (2–5 g), white or brown. You can add a little Worcestershire or oyster sauce. Be sure to add 2-3 tbsp of water. In a mortar, grind 1 tsp of black peppercorns and sift them through a small sieve. The coarse bits are not used; mix the finer ones into the sauce.

How to fry

1. At home, beef stir-fry is best made in a cast-iron wok. It gives strong local heat in the hollow, leaving a lower temperature at the edges.

2. Sear the beef until crusty. Set the wok over high heat and pour in 1-1.5 tbsp of sesame oil. When the wok is well heated and the oil begins to smell pleasant, add all the prepared beef.

   

   Fry the pieces of meat until they lightly brown and a noticeable seared crust forms. Then transfer the beef to a separate plate.

   

4. Stir-fry the vegetables. Right after the meat, add the pieces of chili to the wok and fry them for 2-3 mins. Then add the sliced onion and all the bell pepper and fry until soft and starting to brown, usually 4-5 mins.

5. Return the seared beef to the vegetables and fry everything together for 2-3 mins.

   

6. Stirring the stir-fry, pour the sauce into the wok in a thin stream. Fry for another 2-3 mins, during which the sauce thickens a little thanks to the cornstarch in the marinade.

   

Serving

1. Sprinkle the stir-fry with a few sesame seeds and serve hot. Ideally, the vegetables keep a slight firmness while the beef stays tender and juicy. Dishes like this are usually eaten with chopsticks and served with a light vegetable side dish of fried Chinese cabbage or boiled rice.