Stir-Fried Beef with Oyster Sauce

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I was first "introduced" to Kylie Kwong by Cathy.  Not a physical introduction but more like I got to know about this Australian Chinese chef, TV presenter, restauranteur cum cookbook writer when Cathy got me one of Kylie's cookbook for my last birthday.  I got my hands on another book of Kylie Kwong while doing Christmas shopping a few months ago.

This time round it was a back to basic cookbook on Chinese cuisine.  The recipes are no where near fancy but more day-to-day dishes that our mothers put on the dining table.  While it is easy to find a gazillion food blogs for simple recipes like these, it is one in a million to get a book written by a true professional on elementary stuff for ordinary people like me whose only desire is to put together a decent home cooked meal for the family.

Even though it was a very basic dish, it took me 2 tries to get this one right (I am that dumb!).  I had sliced the beef to 1 cm thick was instructed by the book but somehow the meat turned out to be too chewy.  I am certain that I must have done something wrong during the frying process but I couldn't pin my finger on the exact cause. At least the taste was there and sufficient to nudge me to attempt a second try.  This time, I sliced the beef real thin and seasoned with cornflour.  I happily declared victory when I took the first bite.

To get a thicker consistency of the sauce, I had added cornstarch instead of just water and the broccoli (which was really because Matty had requested that I cook some for him this weekend) turned out to be a great garnish because we could use that to dip into the sauce and clean out the whole plate.


Ingredients:

  • 500 gm beef (sliced thinly)
  • 6 slices of ginger (can be julienned as well)
  • 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
  • 1 medium-sized onion (cut into think wedges)
  • 4 to 5 stalks of spring onion (cut into 1-inch long)
  • Cornflour
  • Light soy sauce
  • Malt vinegar
  • Shaoxing wine
  • Oyster sauce
  • Sugar
  • Sesame seed oil

Preparation:


  • Marinate beef with 2 tablespoons of Shaoxing wine, 2 tablespoon of light soy sauce and 2 teaspoon of cornflour for 30 minutes.
  • In the meantime, mix together 1 1/2 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1 1/2 tablespoon of light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of malt vinegar, 1 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine and a dash of sesame seed oil.
  • Using another bowl, mix 100 ml of water to 2 teaspoon of cornflour and set aside
  • Heat wok with some oil and stir-fry half of the beef for 30 seconds and remove from heat.  Stir-fry the other half of the beef likewise.  (I like to remove beef when it is still a little pinkish to avoid overcooking when it gets returned to the wok)
  • With the same wok, heat up more oil and stir in onion, ginger and garlic until the onion starts to brown.
  • Add in sauce mixture and let it simmer slightly.
  • Place beef back into wok , giving it a quick stir.
  • Low the heat slightly and add in spring onion and cornflour mixture.  Mix well.
  • Remove from heat as soon as the sauce starts to thicken and while the beef is still tender.

Number of Servings: 4