.JPG)
0
comments
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
