This dish reminds me of my university days and till these day, it is one dish that I don’t mind having just that and rice (maybe with one type of vegetable too). I just love the combination of crispy bite and the salty-sweet-sour in a dish wit hot rice. Plus, it is so simple to make at home if you are a ‘kicap’-soy-sauce hoarder like myself.
I usually would use a different recipe but since I was just too lazy to make two different type of dish, I decided making a kid-friendly version of crispy chilli beef. I cant promise you that this is the closest you can get but if you have fussy kids like mine who cant even taste a bit of spice in their food; try making this.
INGREDIENTS FOR THE BEEF (MARINADE)
350g (or slightly more) beef (cut in strips, thinly)
2tsp sesame oil
1tsp sugar
2tbsp light-soy-sauce
STEP FOR MARINATING THE BEEF
- Combine the sesame oil, sugar and light soy sauce.
- Add the mixture to the beef and set aside.
INGREDIENTS FOR CRISPY BEEF
Marinated beef
1 cup of cornflour (potato start flour better)
Egg
Salt & Pepper
Oil (please use oil that has high smoke point such as peanut oil)
STEP FOR FRYING CRISPY BEEF
- Beat the egg in a bowl and then add the marinated beef. Combine and making sure its coated with the egg.
- In another plate – add the cornflour and season it with salt and pepper (dry ingredients)
- Then, coat the beef with the dry ingredients and make sure you use forks to toss the strip. If you don’t mind getting messy like myself, by all means use your hands. Be prepared that it will get clumpy.
- Heat some oil in a wok , enough to do shallow frying (around 2 cam deep).
- Once the oil is hot enough, place the beef strip and fry it. Please do this in batches. I did roughly about 3-4 batches.
- Once the beef is all crispy, lay it on a kitchen towel to remove any excess oil
- Once all beef is set aside, as it back to the wok and cook it one more round. I believe this makes it even crispier to double fry it.
FINAL INGREDIENTS FOR THE SAUCE
4 tbsp ketchup
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp dark soy-sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 medium carrot, sliced thinly
1 chilli, deseeded, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, minced
1cm ginger, minced
Optional : Spring onion
STEPS FOR MAKING CRIPSY ‘CHILLI’ BEEF
- Combine ketchup, brown sugar, rice vinegar, dark soy sauce and honey. Mix it and set aside as the sauce.
- Heat up the wok with a tablespoon of oil. Saute the garlic and ginger for a minute and add the carrot and chilli.
- Stir fry the ingredients for 30 seconds and add the sauce to the wok and allow it to thicken down for a minute. Add the crispy beef back into the wok.
- Toss everything together until is is evenly coated in the sauce. Do this quickly so that the beef remains crispy.
- Then serve it immediately with your choice of vegetable and hot rice. In my case, I used steamed broccoli.
Notes:
- Beef : I like my beef tender, so I used tenderloin for this one. However, do not marinate it too long because the beef will disintegrate and can cause it to get mushy. But if you are using a different cut of meat, marinating it longer can help it soften-tenderise the beef.
- Rice vinegar : You can use vinegar but rice vinegar / Shaoxing wine vinegar has a sweetness to it that you don’t get from the normal vinegar.
- Double frying : For crispy beef, I would double fry it to get that crispiness. Try it out.
- Potato starch vs corn flour : I have tried both and if you like your beef crispy (like super crispy), please use potato starch. I used corn flour for this recipe. Hence, the double frying.
- Ketchup : This is the kid-friendly version. Ive seen some recipes using sweet chilli sauce but I usually would just use hoisin and rely on birds eye chillis to make it spicier.
So, thats all for today everyone.
Love,
Sofia
thestolenrecipes.co 