Wednesday, December 16, 2020

My favourite stir fy recipe of all time - black pepper beef!

 The reason why I am starting on this first post, it's just so it's easier reference point for me to refer to a recipe I enjoy using! πŸ˜„

So here it goes..

First attempt of stir fried black pepper beef.

I first tried cooking this dish in April, when Circuit Breaker started and there was practically no restaurants open for dine in. This had always been my go-to dish at Ichiban Sushi (an affordable causal-dining Japanese restaurant) - sizzling black pepper beef. 

So I looked up the recipe and tried my hands at it, the first one was a little too salty, so was the second. So along the way, I tweaked the ratios and the recent one just yesterday (or was it the day before) was really good! 😁

So to ease my search every single time I cook this, I’m putting it here for sharing, and also my own reference. πŸ˜†

Serves: 3 (or 2 very hungry people)
Time: 15 mins for prep (excluding marinating time), 15 mins to cook

Ingredients:
1. 200g to 250g of sliced beef (I cheated and bought the one ready for stir fry at NTUC (our local supermarket))
2. 1 small yellow pepper
3. 1 small green pepper (why not red coz whoever I cooked for does not fancy the reds 🀣)
4. 1 small round cabbage

Misc en place:
1. Marinate the beef with some corn starch (to make it smooth when cooking), some light soya sauce, sesame oil and hua diao jiu (Chinese Shaoxing wine used for cooking). I say some coz I never measure them, it’s always been by gut-feel, a very Chinese thing. 🀣
2. Sit the beef for at least 10 mins, but of course if you can sit it for a couple of hours, even better. 
3. Julienne or dice the peppers. For dicing, dice them into slightly larger cuts. Set aside.
4. Use about 5 to 6 leaves of the cabbage, rinse and slice them thinly, think Japanese Tonkatsu cabbage style. 
5. Blanch the cabbage for about 2 mins in a pot of boiling water with some salt. Set aside and cool. 

Sauce/Gravy:
1. 31/2 tablespoons of light soya sauce
2. 1 teaspoon sugar
3. 1 teaspoon corn starch
4. 5 tablespoons of water
5. A dash of Hua Diao Jiu (about a capful)
6. 11/2 tablespoons of grounded black pepper

Misc en place:
1. Mix items 1 to 5 in a bowl for prep. 
2. You can add in some grounded black pepper to the mix, but I recommend not to as it tends to stick to the bowl, rather than into the wok later. 

Cook:
1. Heat up a wok with some oil. 
2. Pour in the marinated beef and do a quick stir fry till the beef is about 70% to 80% cooked.
3. Remove the cooked beef from the wok. 
4. Using the remaing oil (if any), add in a little more, and pour in the cut peppers. 
5. Stir fry under low heat till peppers have a slight sheen to them and the skins are a little darkened/browned. 
6. Without removing the peppers from the wok, pour in the beef and do a quick fry for about 30 seconds.
7. Add in the pre-mixed sauce/gravy TABLESPOON BY TABLESPOON to prevent it from thickening too quickly. 
8. When it reaches the consistency you want, add in the grounded black pepper. (I enjoy a little more gravy with my beef, so I will add in another 2 tablespoons of water with the black pepper.)
9. Let it simmer for about 1 min.
10. Line a clean plate/bowl with the cabbage (you can pour it into the wok and do a quick stir too). 
11. Remove the cooked items from the wok and pour it over the cabbage.  

And ta-da! Dinner (or lunch) is ready!

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