Ginger Beef
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Beef and batter
- 700 g flank steak or sirloin, sliced very thinly against the grain, then into matchsticks rounded
- 2 eggs rounded
- 120 ml water rounded
- 130 g cornflour rounded
- 1 L neutral oil, for deep frying rounded
Sauce
- 80 ml light soy sauce rounded
- 45 ml rice vinegar, Chinese red vinegar is traditional rounded
- 30 ml Shaoxing wine rounded
- 120 ml water rounded
- 70 g sugar rounded
- 5 g dried chilli flakes rounded
Aromatics and vegetables
- 30 ml neutral oil rounded
- 40 g fresh ginger, cut into fine matchsticks, not grated rounded
- 6 garlic cloves, minced rounded
- 120 g carrot, finely julienned rounded
- 80 g green pepper, finely sliced rounded
- 2 scallions, sliced rounded
- 5 g toasted sesame seeds rounded
Method
Method
- Slice the beef properly. Freeze it for 30 minutes first to firm it up, then slice very thinly against the grain and cut those slices into matchsticks. Thin and short is what lets the batter crisp all the way round each piece.
- Make the batter. Whisk the eggs and water, then beat in the cornflour until smooth and about the thickness of double cream. Add the beef and stir until every strand is coated.
- Mix the sauce in a bowl so it is ready. It goes in fast at the end.
- Fry in small batches. Heat the oil to 180°C. Lift out a small tangle of beef at a time, letting excess batter drip off, and drop the strands in loosely separated. Fry 3 to 4 minutes until dark golden and crisp. Crowding is fatal here; the strands weld into a single lump. Drain on a rack.
- Fry everything, then fry it again if you want it very crisp. A second 60 second pass at 190°C makes it restaurant crunchy and is worth doing if you have the patience.
- Reduce the sauce until sticky. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of oil from a wok. Fry the ginger and garlic for 30 seconds until fragrant but not coloured, add the carrot and pepper for 1 minute, then pour in the sauce and boil hard for 2 to 3 minutes until it reduces to a syrup that coats the back of a spoon. This must be sticky before the beef goes near it.
- Toss and serve immediately. Take the pan off the heat, add the beef, toss 10 to 15 seconds until coated, and tip onto a plate. Scatter scallions and sesame seeds. Any longer in the pan and the crust softens.
Notes
- This is a Canadian dish with a documented origin. Chef George Wong created it at the Silver Inn in Calgary’s Chinatown in the 1970s as a westernised take on a northern Chinese dish, deep frying shredded beef and simmering it in chilli sauce. It spread across Alberta and then the country. Calling it a Chinese classic is not quite right; calling it a Calgary classic is.
- Julienne the ginger, do not grate it. Visible strands of ginger are the signature of the dish and grated ginger disappears into the sauce.
- The sauce must be reduced to a syrup before the beef arrives. A thin sauce soaks in and the whole dish goes limp. If it is not sticky yet, keep boiling; the beef can wait on its rack.
- Small batches, loosely separated. This is the single hardest part and the reason home versions come out as one beef brick.
- Not a dish that keeps. Eat it the moment it is tossed.
Ingredient substitutions
- Chinese red vinegar is traditional and available at Asian grocers in Canada and Germany. Rice vinegar is the everyday substitute and is what most recipes now use; cider vinegar also works with slightly more fruitiness.
- Shaoxing wine substitutes with dry sherry, or stock plus a splash of vinegar for an alcohol-free version.
- Flank steak is ideal. Sirloin, skirt or any lean quick-cooking cut works as long as it is sliced thinly against the grain.