Stir-Fried Beef with Oyster Sauce

Quick and delicious, stir-fried beef with oyster sauce provides a great introduction to Chinese cooking.  This one “from column A” can be prepared in less than half an hour including rice.  If you don’t have a wok, make it in a stainless steel or cast iron skillet.  Don’t make it in a non-stick skillet as you can’t get it hot enough.

By the way, stir-frying is a misnomer as there is no stirring in stir-frying.  The technique is to lift the ingredients with your spatula and turn them over.  As you continue from different angles, all the food gets seared from contact with the hottest part of the wok.  Make the rice first.

 

Ingredients

¾ lb. steak (flank or boneless strip)

1 T soy sauce (preferably tamari)

2 sweet peppers

1 large onion

1 t  cornstarch

2 T oyster sauce

pinch of salt

Peanut oil as needed

Directions

1. Slice steak against the grain into bite-size strips. Place in a bowl and mix with soy sauce.  Set aside.

2. Remove ribs and seeds from peppers and julienne into bite-size strips.

3. Cut onion into thin slices

4. Make a slurry of cornstarch and water.  Mix in oyster sauce.

5. Heat wok to very hot but not smoking.  Add 1 T oil. Stir fry pepper strips until tender and slightly seared. Add a wee pinch of salt to peppers and onions as thy cook.) Dish into serving bowl.

6. Add 1 T oil into hot wok.  Stir fry onions until lightly browned.  Add to serving bowl.

7. Again, add 1 T oil to hot wok.  Stir fry steak until cooked through.

8. Return peppers and onions to wok.  Stir fry with meat for 15 seconds.

9. Make a “well” in center of hot wok and add slurry.  Stir fry until ingredients are coated.

10. Serve alongside a bowl of steaming hot rice.

Chinese rice (makes 3 cups cooked rice)

Ingredients

1 cup long grain white rice

1 ¾ cup cold water

Directions

1. Rinse rice in several changes of cold water until it runs clear.

2. Place water and rice in a 2-quart pan with a tight-fitting cover. (I add a pinch of salt but this is not traditional.)

3. Bring to a boil without cover.  Turn heat to low and cook with cover at a bare simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Let rest until the rest of your meal is ready to serve.  Fluff rice with fork and serve hot. (Resist the temptation to peek at the rice before it is ready to serve.)

Photos by Michael Kirigin

Tangy Tofu; Resplendent Rice

Spicy Szechuan Tofu

Sure, you might want to try this recipe because it’s good for you, but you would also be right on target to try it because it’s zesty and redolent with Asian tang.  Tofu is a highly versatile ingredient absorbing any flavors you want it to have, in this case, spicy chili paste, sesame oil, garlic and fresh ginger.

My Chinese mentors, the late Virginia Lee and Grace Chu inspired this recipe.  Both had tantalizing stir fried tofu in their repertoires.  Madame Chu lived to age 100.  She ate good food.

Ingredients

6 squares firm tofu

2 T peanut or vegetable oil

1 cup ground pork

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 t salt

2 t minced fresh ginger

1 T hot Szechuan chili paste

1 T dark soy sauce

½ t sugar

1 T rice wine

½ cup chicken stock

2 T cornstarch

1 t Szechuan peppercorns, ground*

1/3 cup diced scallions

1 T sesame oil

Procedure

1. Cut tofu into ½ inch cubes.

2. In a wok or skillet, bring peanut oil to a high heat.  Add ground pork and stir fry** until all pieces are separated and pork loses its pink color.

3. Add garlic and salt, stir frying just until the flavor is released.

4. Add ginger, chili paste and tofu, stir frying very gently.

5. Add soy sauce, sugar and wine, stir frying until mixed.

6. Pour in stock, mixing until it begins to boil and then add cornstarch mixed with 2 T water.

7. Stir fry gently until sauce thickens.

8. Sprinkle with peppercorn powder, scatter on scallions and drizzle with sesame oil to serve.

* You can grind them in a spice mill or just put them in a baggie and role a bottle or rolling pin over them.

** “Stir frying” is a misnomer.  There is no stirring in stir frying.  The technique is to slide the spatula underneath the food at the center of the wok, lift it up and turn it over. Then repeat this procedure from a different angle. Thus, the top surface becomes the bottom surface and all gets cooked evenly. Always heat your wok first before adding the oil.  Get your wok as hot as possible without burning the oil.  Don’t use a nonstick pan.

Entice with Rice

by Victor Ribaudo

I’ll bet you’re thinking, “What does this Italian guy know about rice?”  Well, it’s true that pasta is the carbohydrate of choice is my neck of the boot (Southern Italy, that is.)  Nevertheless, we Italian Americans have a keen talent for spotting a good thing when we taste it.  Truth is, pasta runs a close second to rice in my household.  And really, anything I put on pasta can easily be placed on a dish of rice and taste just as good – even better in some instances.  (Nonna, forgive me!)

Rice plays such a major role in the culinary traditions of so many cultures around the world.  It’s the global favorite.  Think about it.  All of Asia is hooked on rice.  Always has been.  That’s a lot of rice!  Then there’s the Caribbean and South America, where rice is king as well.  In the U.S., Southern cuisine features rice in many of its dishes, especially in Creole and Cajun cooking.  So my affinity for rice puts me in very good company.

Growing up, rice made limited appearances on the dinner table.  Mom did have one good rice recipe up her sleeve, though.  She prepared the rice in chicken broth.  When it was done, she’d fluff it up and mix freshly chopped scallions into it.  So simple but really nice with her fried chicken cutlets.  My grandmother’s rice repertoire was mostly limited to mixing it with butter and parmiggiano cheese.  Every once in a rare while she incorporated Sunday’s left over sauce and chopped meatballs into freshly prepared rice.  It was garnished with grated cheese and served it as a side dish.  It was good.  Her Steak Pizzaiola or Chicken Cacciatore were also ladled over rice.  But that was about it.

When I started living on my own, rice quickly exceeded pasta and potatoes as the norm in my kitchen.  It was fairly inexpensive, nutritious, delicious and extremely versatile.  I became a master at fried rice featuring chicken, pork, beef, vegetables – you name it – and always with scrambled egg, please.  Rice replaced noodles in my soups.  I had a ball as I would gumbo and etouffee my way through the week with ease.  I believe I ate rice every day.  Then I hit my thirties – hard.  Metabolizing carbohydrates slowed down as my weight went up. I had to cut back a bit.

So now I balance the carbs with protein and fresh veggies.  It’s fine, really, because I still eat plenty of my beloved rice. Just not every day!  I will opt for brown rice at times.  Kind of nutty in flavor.  And they say it’s a better choice for those watching their weight.  Wild rice is also pretty tasty.  (It’s not technically rice, but who’s looking anyway.)  I like to mix chopped almonds in mine.  However, a good white rice – whether it’s basmati, jasmine or texmati – is still my preference.  I’ll go as far as leaving the potatoes out of my beef stew so I can enjoy it over rice.  If I’m going to carb, I’ll drop the potato like, well, a hot potato any day.

Have you ever tried a rice salad?  It’s really something special.  Prepare your rice as directed, and let it cool.  Be sure the kernels are separated.  It won’t work with sticky rice.  Then take some really ripe tomatoes and dice, saving all the luscious juice.  Do the same with celery, red onion, flat leaf parsley and fresh basil.  Mix your veggies into the rice, as well as a can of rinsed black beans.  Now you’re ready for a dressing.  I recommend red wine vinegar and olive oil here.  Simple, but classic.  Chill and serve.

I can extol the glories of rice for days and days.  Suffice it to say, since space here is limited, that rice can take center stage or play a supporting role at any fine meal.  In other words, look to entice with rice.  Recipes are limitless, but start with Phyllis’ above.  It’s a keeper.  That’s it for now.  I’ve got some rice pudding in the fridge with my name on it.

Recipe by Phyllis Kirigin

Photographer Bill Brady

Written by Victor Ribaudo

Blog syndicated at the datingsymbol.com

” I like rice.  Rice is great if you’re hungry and want 2000 of something.”  Mitch Hedberg

 

 

May 27, 2011 at 11:05 pm

vanillasugarblog says:  you know what?
i can’t wait to see what you do with ice cream. lately that’s all i’ve been eating since it’s very hot here in NE.
have a good holiday wknd!

Meet My Chinese Mentors

MADAME GRACE ZIA CHU

Two of my most memorable cooking teachers were Madame Grace Zia Chu and Virginia Lee.  Madame Chu taught classes in Chinese cooking including an advanced course in banquet cooking.  Grace’s husband was a general in Chiang Kai-shek’s army.  She and her husband moved to this country where Grace enrolled in Wellesley University studying physical education.  The teaching skills she acquired put her in good stead for teaching cooking which she was later to do.

When her husband became a military attaché assigned to the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C, she took on duties as a hostess becoming an ambassador of Chinese cooking.  Her friends who often dined in her home urged her to offer cooking classes and acquaint Americans with the glories of Chinese food.  It was the 1950s when Chinese food was thought of as chop suey and chow mein.  Grace Chu set out to remedy that notion and took her friends’  advice offering classes at the China Institute, the Mandarin  House restaurant  as well holding  small classes in her upper west side apartment in Manhattan.

I was fortunate to be one of those students.  She not only taught Chinese cooking techniques but regaled her students with anecdotes of Chinese culture and history as well.  Her first book The Pleasures of Chinese Cooking was published in 1962.  “The book may well be the finest, most lucid volume on Chinese cooking ever written,” Craig Claiborne wrote in The New York Times in 1962.

My memories revolve around Madame Chu’s warm welcome to her handful of students as we sat in her living room chatting  and  Madame  Chu explaining what we were going to prepare in her small kitchen..  We started out in the dining room, chopping and preparing our ingredients.  Madame Chu carefully observed each student readjusting the hand on any wrongly held cleaver or demonstrating once again the roll cut.

She taught me the Chinese concept of wholeness.  When we deep fried a whole fish, even though we had cut it into sections, we put it back together on the platter to recreate the whole.  Madame Chu asked if any of us would like to try the eyeballs, considered a delicacy.  Everyone declined and Madame Chu popped both crunchy gems into her mouth.

We made shark fin soup and a deboned stuffed chicken.  I volunteered to debone the chicken under her guidance.  The flesh was chopped, mixed with Chinese sausage and other savory ingredients.  The remaining skin, untorn and uncut , looked like a tiny pair of long johns.  The stuffing was placed in the skin and voila!  The whole chicken seemed to have reappeared.

SELECTING AND SEASONING A WOK  

Good news:  the best wok also happens to be the least expensive and that is the carbon steel, sometimes called a rolled steel, wok.  Carbon steel will rust so you have to season it and take proper care of it.  However, it is light weight, will take on a black patina over time and nothing will stick to it.  Cast iron is too heavy to maneuver and will interact with acetic ingredients.  Stainless steel may be heavy and will be more expensive.  An electric wok is out of the question as you cannot take food quickly off the heat or manipulate the wok.  

Carbon steel is the way to go.  A new wok may be covered with machine oil which must be washed off with detergent and a plastic scrubber or brush.  Never use steel wool on a wok.  Dry the wok and place it on a top burner until the entire surface is hot.  Douse a wad of rolled up piece of paper towel with peanut (or vegetable) oil and using tongs, wipe the entire surface.  Heat for 10 minutes.  Let cool.  With clean paper towels, wipe out wok.  Repeat this process two more times.

 The first couple of times you use a wok, there may be a slight metallic taste, but this will soon wear off. After each use, wash with hot water and detergent and dry thoroughly.  At the beginning,  rub with oil again.  After a short while this will not be necessary and in time you will have a beautiful shiny black wok on which nothing will stick.

Fried rice is a quick and delicious dish as long as you remember to make the rice in advance.  You must use cold cooked rice.  The rice should fall into into separate grains in the final dish.  To accomplish this, stir fry the rice separately and don’t add additional ingredients until the rice is nicely golden and aromatic.

 

MADAME CHU’S SHRIMP AND HAM FRIED RICE  

½ lb. cooked smoked ham cut into a small dice

8 to 10 large raw shrimp

3 T peanut oil

2 large eggs, beaten

3 cups cold cooked long grain rice

1 ½ T dark soy sauce

2 scallions cut into ¼ inch pieces (both white and green)

¼ cup green peas

 

Stir fry ham and set aside. Stir fry shrimp and set aside.  Heat 1 T oil and scramble eggs lightly. Dish.  Heat 2 T oil in wok.  Add rice.  Stir fry until rice is coated in oil and begins to turn slightly brown.  This will take about ten minutes.  Add soy sauce and stir fry.  Add eggs and break up with spatula.  Add scallion, ham and peas.  Dish and Serve.  Serves 4 as part of a meal.

Instead of ham, ½ lb. bacon cut into ½” pieces can be used.

A Note on Fried Rice:: Notice that you fry rice without anything else in the wok except just enough oil to coat the rice.  Stir fry the rice using the technique described below.  When you think you have stir fried the rice long enough, you haven’t.  This is the secret to a really tasty nutty fried rice.  Continue stir frying until the rice begins to turn golden and exudes a nutty aroma.  If you have clumps at the beginning, break them up by pressing them with the back of the spatula.  They will break apart.

VIRGINIA LEE

Virginia Lee was a masterful Chinese cook who held classes in her daughter’s tiny Chinatown apartment in New York City.  Her style was instinctive.  She assembled beautiful dishes relying on experience and knowhow.  In fact, when she wrote The  Chinese Cookbook,  Craig Claiborne sat at her side with measuring spoons and cups and typewriter, insisting that each ingredient be measured as Ms. Lee recreated her masterpieces.

One evening during class a powerful snowstorm was headed our way.  I should have dropped everything and driven home which was as far north of Chinatown as you could go and still be in Manhattan.  However,  I was so caught up in cooking and eating that by the time I left, snow was falling heavily.  As I drove home, the snow was building steadily and driving became slow and treacherous.  I finally managed to get one block from my house and could get no further.  The snow was too deep.  The parked cars were just mounds of snow.  I left my car in the middle of the street, walked home and realized what I’d done for food.  I should have realized then that this insanity would remain with me.

BUTTERFLIED SHRIMP (adapted from Virginia Lee’s recipe)

 

20 extra large shrimp

2 t salt

2 t baking soda

 

Dip:

 

2 t peanut oil

2 T ketchup

1 t tomato paste

3 T white vinegar

¼ cup sugar

1 T light soy sauce

1 t salt

1 cup water

1 ½ T cornstarch

3 T water

 

Batter:

 

½ cup rice flour

2 T cornstarch

2 ½ t baking powder

1 ½ t peanut oil

½ t salt

1 t sugar (Continue Butterflied Shrimp)