Ingredients
- 400g beef (short rib cuts are great if you can be bothered, any old beef is cool though)
- 3 scallions, white portion and cut into 1-2cm sections
- Some thin slices of ginger
- 2-3 sweet peppers, chopped into chunks, thumb-size chunks (too small and all that chopstick work picking them up won't yield enough food!)
- 1-2 chillies, sliced (say 3mm per slice) and chopped a bit after that
- Some oil (not olive, smoke point lower than a beefy cat, i.e. loowww)
- Sesame oil and fine-slivered carrot or red pepper for garnish
- Marinade:
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine
- 1 teaspoon sugar (any fine kind that dissolve instantly, i.e. avoid big-grain demarara)
- 2 teaspoons potato / corn starch
- Sauce:
- 1 teaspoon MSG else it will all be for nought
- 1 tablespoon rice wine (if you have none, you can add a little extra wine vinegar)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons chicken or beef stock, or even vegetable bouillon from powder
- 2 tablespoons Oyster Sauce
If you're going to eat this with a noodle replacement like spaghetti squash, prep that now and get it in (45 mins @190C / 380F).
Slice the meat across the grain, 1/8” thick, into small strips, approximately 3/4” by 2” or so. Combine the meat with the marinade ingredients, toss it up, and set aside for at least a half hour.
Now do prep - chopping and all that. Luckily there's no garlic here!
When you've finished that, make the sauce in a little bowl or a cup; mix it up a bit. It'll settle but that's OK.
If you're going to eat this alongside rice, put that on now.
Heat 4 tbsps of oil in wok until it's really warm and almost smoking. Stir fry the beef for one or two minutes, allowing it to rest occasionally on the sides of the wok, until it begins to brown; remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Reheat wok to medium high, and as soon as it begins to smoke, add the scallion and ginger slices and quickly stir fry until onion just begins to brown on the edges, then toss in the peppers and chillies, frying for 30 seconds or so.
Stir up your sauce with a chopstick or something, then add it. Toss the mixture in the pan until it is boiling vigorously, then, as it begins to reduce, add back the sliced meat. Mix the whole, and when sauce has reduced enough to coat the ingredients without too much puddling in the bottom of the wok, pour onto a small platter and garnish with sesame oil and slivered vegetables for appearance.
NOW EAT
