Friday, February 19, 2010

Stir fried beef with green chilies

Why do all Chinese people cook so well? All my chinese friends in Germany are great cooks! They always told me that back in China, they never cook or even help out in the kitchen. Either they were lying or there's just something in their gene. Do they really have some special chromosomes to enable them to taste and cook built inside their DNA? If so, I want one please!

One of my friends from China, HY, is one of them. He is a very talented cook, even more than the average Chinese. His great great great uncle was a cook in the Royal Palace, or so he told me. He keeps telling me that Chinese food in Berlin is inedible. He is so talented that he can easily cook the dishes that he ate in restaurants by only tasting them once. Of course I didn't believe him and I asked for proof, and boy did he proof me wrong. He invited me more than once to his home and cooked at least 4 dishes each time. Everytime he cooks, I would watch him closely and take notes of everything he does around the kitchen. I must say, the way he handles his wok and fire, and the way he prepares his food is so above par that I sadly can't imitate. So, I'm always grateful for his invitations since I always leave full and happy after his meals that I can't do nothing but rub my ever expanding tummy gleefully.

I have the honour of watching him cook last week. Here is his version of stir fried beef with green peppers. Sorry about the measurements, but like most great chefs, he never measured anything. Once I asked him about the measurements, he laughed so hard and said something like "a cook needs to feel the ingredients flowing out of his hands".

stir fried beef with green chilies


Stir fried beef with green peppers

Beef fillet
some green peppers,
a lot of cooking oil
Shao Xing wine
Oyster sauce
dark mushroom soy sauce
light soy sauce
starch
meat tenderizer
a bit sugar
sesame oil
black sesame seeds

  • Sliced beef fillet into thin strips and marinade them in soy sauce, oyster sauce, starch, meat tenderizer, sugar and sesame oil. Put them into the fridge for about 30 min -1 hour
  • Heat up a wok and pour in around 1 cup cooking oil. Once the oil is hot enough (you'll see smoke rising up) put in the marinated beef strips into the cooking oil. Stir them untill the beef browned. Transfer the beef into another plate and pour away the excess oil.
  • Leave around 2 Tbs of oil in the wok and once it heats up, put the green peppers into the wok. Stir fry for 5 seconds, you want the green chilies to be crunchy, not soggy
  • Transfer the cooked beef into the wok with the fried peppers and lightly salt them
  • Garnish with black sesame seeds




1 comment:

  1. did you cook this yourself?? I have never seen this with the peppers cut like they did not care.
    these were cut the wrong way. I was taught by a Chinese chef at his restaurant in Japan. he states that by slicing it thin and across it instead of the down the length, you get the best for texture and flavor at the same time...it also makes it look better.

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