Chinese food

kwaichi

stormbreaker wrote: »

Recipe for Shredded Chilli Crispy Beef please?

jimmyboy420 wrote: »

This please! Wow there recipes are making me hungry!

CRISPY SHREDDED BEEF

The Crispy Beef
500ml of peanut oil
250g of Topside Beef
2 tablespoons of cornstarch

The Random Veg:
1 cup pre shredded carrots

Sauce:
80ml of rice wine vinegar.
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of soy sauce (Kikoman C00039)
1 clove of finely chopped garlic
1 finely chopped birdseye chilli


In a bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for the sauce.

Remove all of the fat from the meat and cut it into thin strips.
Coat the beef with a generous dusting of cornstarch and press into the beef so it sticks with your hands or a teatowel.
Add the peanut oil to the wok and heat until hot. Make sure to add enough oil so that the beef will be virtually deep fried. (Alternatively use a deep fat fryer)
Carefully drop the beef in the wok and allow to fry for about 5 minutes or until it browns.
Drain beef on some kitchen paper/drain rack.

In another wok (or using the same wok without the oil) use a tablespoon of peanut oil and heat until hot.
Add the carrots and stir for about 2 minutes. Add the beef and then the rest of the sauce ingredients.
Stir together and serve immediately.

The beef coating now softens a little with the introduction of the sauce and you may have noticed that because you are using topside beef you don't actually need to shred the beef at all. Once cooked the nature of topside makes the beef stringy when cooked in the pressure of the cornstarch coating.

In a takeaway the beef is usually part cooked and stored in a freezer/fridge as and when you order it. It is then refried in the deep fat and the sauce & carrots are added on top to slowly soften the beef by the time you get home/it gets delivered.

kwaichi

A NOTE ABOUT WOKS

One of the most common complaints about chinese takeaway/restaurants are the amount of grease in the dish that you get. This gives the general public the perception that chinese cooking is really unhealthy. This is all down to the wok. It simply comes down to cost cutting - a cheap commercial grade wok is a robust long lasting bit of bent carbon steel with a wooden handle. They take a battering from the metal ladles used and are pretty thick. There are 2 main types of commercial wok - one for making fried rice which is really thick and very heavy (so it can take a serious beating) and another thinner one for everything else (still a lot thicker than one you would get at home). When they are first purchased they are lined with oil and placed under high heat for up to 5 hours until the oil burns off. The silver wok turns black and is a lot more non stick than it was before.

When a chinese takeaway/restaurant is busy, if only a little oil is used some of your food gets stuck onto the wok because over time, the non stick coat begins breaking in places because of use of metal utensils and metal scourers (for cleaning).
When the food gets stuck on the wok it takes longer to clean with the scourer. It's as simple as that - more oil equals less cleaning which equals more greasy food.

The same will apply in your home. I'm only talking about the type that can go on all hobs - the ones with flat bottoms. Don't buy a round bottom wok unless you have a really high flame on your gas hob and a cradle to hold it.
If you buy a cheap wok that does not come with a non stick coating you will have to season the wok with oil and even using wooden or plastic utensils will not stop it becoming sticky quickly. If you buy a cheap non stick wok then you can't season it and the non stick coating is usually completely useless after about 5 uses.

Luckily there are high quality woks on the market which are non stick and are guaranteed to stand the test of time. Le Creuset, Circulon and even Asda direct do an anodised aluminium material wok. Anodised Aluminium is seriously non stick but I would still recommend only using wooden utensils (pref beechwood or olive wood).

Even with the best wok your food will turn out poorly if you are not brave enough to heat up your oil to the max! It may sizzle and spit but that's what will give you the special carbon taste and familiar asian flavour.

kwaichi

stormbreaker wrote: »

To Scotland?

Thanks for spotting that lol! I offered MrsE who lives close by that service on the original thread and I accidentally copied it over to this one lol

I have amended the crispy aromatic duck post now and included an actual recipe!

bellrooster

Love this thread, love it.. love it LOVE ITTT

MrsE_2

kwaichi wrote: »

Luckily there are high quality woks on the market which are non stick and are guaranteed to stand the test of time. Le Creuset, Circulon and even Asda direct do an anodised aluminium material wok. Anodised Aluminium is seriously non stick but I would still recommend only using wooden utensils (pref beechwood or olive wood).

More fab posts from you:j:j:j:j:j

I need a new wok, I have a tefal stirfry pan.

I rate both le creuset & circulon. I have le crueset for my oven dishs & circulon for my bakeware.

I have a glass hob.

Would like a large one for plenty of stiring room:D

Are both as good as each other?

christabell

Thank you,:j Thank you,:j Thank you...:j

Having been Chinese in a previous life (Singaporen I believe :eek:) I have a very Chinese stomach. Two questions please:

1. Why is the Sweet and Sour sauce in Take Away's such a bright red colour?:o

2. In the USA I just love Moo shui Pork....why don't we have it here in the UK?????:cool:

Drea

Would you have a recipe for Kung Po Chicken?

kwaichi

Pretani wrote: »

Is it necessary to add Sweet and sour sauce? What can you substitute that with as I don't want to make 2 sauce to get curry sauce.

also, could you make this in large quantities and freeze?

Adding a little vinegar and grating a whole orange will do the trick I think - I mean the whole orange though. You can either sieve the sauce at the end or you can put the grated skin in a stock bag/empty teabag (I buy these from Japan Centre).

Buying some sweet and sour sauce from your local chinese supermarket is also an alternative.

Once you have made the sauce you can allow to cool and store in a jar for 1-6 months in the fridge or you can freeze it for longer.

kwaichi

MrsE wrote: »

How about Mee Goring;)

This is not a chinese dish, however my mother grew up in Malaysia and Singapore and I still have many relatives there. :j

Unfortunately I haven't cooked this myself before but here's one I found elsewhere on the interweb which looks like the real deal. http://www.recipezaar.com/Mee-Goreng-131560

The key is the right texture of noodle - it should be a Hokkien Char Mee noodle. I'll try this recipe myself later in the week and perhaps tweak it.

Gunna

Thanks so much for posting the recipes they are super !!!

I can finally have a go at making crispy shredded beef for my OH he loves it but our local doesn't do it

Thanks also for the foo yung recipe(super yum) and the chow mein recipes they look so easy to do and sound yummy lol.

Think i will have to go shopping and stock up on some essentials and have a chinese week of making stuff haha.
Also thanks for the wok advice, i need to get a new one and never have a lcue what i need etc....