Beef and Ginger and Spring Onion

Beef stir-fry with ginger and scallion(姜葱牛肉) takes only fifteen minutes to prepare. Follow the recipe below which rivals any ginger and scallions beef stir-fry from any Chinese restaurant.

The recipe is easy, but the flavor is addictive. Serve with a bowl of steamed rice and will take you halfway to paradise.

You can get most of the seasonings right from your pantry. Buy a piece of good quality beef (tenderloin or chuck) and some scallions and you are all set to cook up a storm in your kitchen.

Are you ready? Let's get started.

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Tips to cook the best ginger and scallion beef stir-fry.

Below is a comprehensive list of tips to produce the best ginger and scallion beef stir-fry. And trust me, if you follow all the tips listed here, you are well on the way to putting yourself in the elite league of stir-fry chefs :).

Many of these points are useful for stir-frying in general. I strongly suggest you go through this section before attempting the recipe below.

1.The right way to cut the beef

Sirloin is best for stir-fries. But you can use a cheaper cut of beef like flank steak.

The meat should be cut into small pieces for beef stir-fry. This will allow it to cook within a very short time. Short cooking time will retain the juiciness, freshness, and flavor of the beef. Prolonged stir-frying will make the meat tough, dry and weak in flavor.

What You Should Do:

Cut the large block of beef into smaller chunks.
Place it in a freezer bag.
Eliminate as much air as possible in the bag and seal it to prevent freezer burn.
Freeze it for about 30 minutes until the beef is partially frozen. (Note: it takes longer for the larger chunk of meat). Now the beef is firm enough to cut into thin slices.
Cut the beef across the grain using the sharpest knife you have.
Place it back in the freezer for a while until it gets firmer if you find that it is too soft.
Wait until the meat slices thoroughly defrost before stir-frying.

The trick for successful beef stir-fry is to slice the beef very thinly, cook on the very high heat in a brief time.

Avoid the beef get 'freezer burn.'

You can purchase the meat in advance and place it in the freezer. However, you need to take care to prevent it from freezer burn.

Freezer burn is when pieces of ice form on your frozen foods. This happens because the frozen food has been exposed to air.

When beef is frozen, water molecules within the beef form ice crystals. These water molecules prefer the most hospitable environment, i.e., the surface of the beef which is the coldest place they can find. As a result, it will be dehydrated, tasteless and have a distinct metallic flavor.

How to prevent freezer burn

Cut the beef into small chunks. Keep it in a freezer bag separately.
Check the temperature of your freezer to make sure it is at zero degrees Fahrenheit. (-18 degrees Celsius). This is because freezer burn can only happen when temperatures fluctuate around 0° F.
Squeeze out as much air as possible from the freezer bag. The objective is to expose the beef to a minimal amount of air.

What if you do not have a freezer bag? No problem. Keep the beef in a plastic container instead of a freezer bag. Cover the surface of the meat with cling film before attaching the cover. This will reduce the amount of space between the food and the lid, thus minimize freezer burn.

Marinate the beef to enhance the flavor

A good marinade helps to tenderize and improve the flavor of the beef.

The purpose of marinating the beef before stir-frying is to ensure the flavor penetrates into the inner part of the meat.

Steps to marinate the beef

Slice 500 g of meat thinly against the grain.
Combine the meat with 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce,1 tablespoon of light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and 2 teaspoons of cornflour.
Marinate for at least 15 minutes, and you are ready to go.

Use the best cut of beef you can find

Choose a beef fillet cut that is marbled with some fat.

Why is it important? Because beef stir fry is a quick cooking process. You can use a lower grade beef for stew because as long as you cook it for an hour or two on low heat, the meat will be tender. However, there is no such luxury for stir-frying as it is cooked in minutes.

Cut the beef against the grain.

The way the meat is cut has a profound effect on the tenderness. All meat has grain, which is the direction of the fibers. Consequently, it is vital to cut the meat against the grain, which shortens the muscle fibers and effectively tenderizes the meat. If you cut along the grain, the meat will come out tough and ropey.

2. The ginger

Use young ginger for ginger and scallions beef stir-fry

The aroma, texture, and flavor of ginger depend on its harvest. Fresh young ginger has a tangy flavor, warmth and mellow sweetness that compliments the beef. That is why this combination is so popular in Asian cooking. On the contrary, mature ginger has more fibrous and with a spicy flavor.

Young ginger is the choice for beef stir-fry (in fact for all stir-fries), as no one will enjoy chewing a fibrous piece of mature ginger. Young ginger has a relatively thin, smooth and papery skin, with pinkish tips. Mature ginger has a darker color, looks wrinkled and shriveled.

How to peel and cut ginger:

Use a vegetable peeler to scrape away the skin.
Use the edge of a metal spoon to scrape away any other part of the skin between the little nubs. It is easier to use a spoon than a peeler at these areas as the peeler tends to peel away more flesh.
Use a sharp paring knife to slice the ginger thinly for stir-frying.

3. The scallion

Scallion is often used as aromatic in beef stir-fry due to its unique Asian flavor. It is added to the wok in the final step, as it takes seconds to cook. It can also be eaten raw by cutting into fine strips or very short sections.

Cut the scallion into pieces about 4-5 cm in length and throw into the wok to stir-fry on high heat for about 20 seconds. Turn down the heat and proceed to the final steps by adding the cornstarch slurry.

You can use additional scallion as the garnish by following this method

Choose only fresh scallion which is crisp and not wilted.
Cut the scallion into about 4 to 5 cm long pieces.
Use a parry knife to slice the scallion lengthwise into very fine strands.
Place the sliced scallion into ice water for one minute.
Remove the scallion strands (which are curled by now) and dry them on a kitchen towel.

4. The seasonings

Most street food vendors do not pre-constitute any sauces. Instead, they have all the seasonings (soy sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, salt, sugar, etc.) ready in individual containers right beside the stove. They will pick them with a small spoon, place them in a ladle whenever they need.

They do that because of the volume, and the speed required to serve the customers. But it has the apparent disadvantage to achieve consistency each time they cook.

Making the sauces in advance will eliminate the unintentional error of omitting some components or using the wrong quantities. This commonly happens as the required amounts of the seasonings are relatively small.

The basic formula

This is the basic stir-fry sauce recipes that I used for this beef stir-fry for a half kg of beef.

1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1/4 teaspoon of ground white pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of cornflour, 3 tablespoons of water

These are ingredients that are traditionally used in Cantonese cooking. You can use this formula not only for the beef stir-fry but applies to other Cantonese stir-fry. Feel free to adjust the amount of each component to your liking.

You can add a small amount of dark soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and sesame oil in the sauce too.

5. Stir-fry over the high heat (myth, lore or science?)

You need high temperature to create the signature aroma of stir-frying called wok-hei, or the "breath of wok." High heat will lead to a chemical reaction (the Maillard reaction), which produce the complex flavor that you are familiar with for the best Chinese take-out. However, this does not mean that high heat is required for the entire cooking process. Here is how it should be done. Note the temperature required at different stages.

Heat up the oil over low heat. Flavor the oil with your choice of aromatic ingredients, such as ginger and scallion. (In this beef stir-fry recipe, I suggest to add ginger and only the white portion of the scallion. Keep the green section and add just about to finish cooking. )
Push the ginger and scallion to the edge of the wok and set the heat to medium.
Once the oil is piping hot, add the meat, quickly stir and toss.
Use the wok shovel to arrange the beef in a single layer and let it sears for a while.
Turn the heat up, add the stir-fry sauce and the green section of the scallion. Quickly stir-fry for twenty seconds.
Adjust the flame to medium heat. Add the cornstarch slurry to the food and stir-fry until the cornstarch is cooked and has thickened.

Note: You can also add the cornstarch slurry to the sauce.

6. Use a cast iron wok for stir-frying.

A wok is the most essential cooking equipment for cooking any Chinese or Asian cuisine. You can certainly cook Asian food in any pan. but the taste will not be the same. This is due to the material used to produce wok-hei as well as the unique shape of the wok as against a flat based pan.

Since a wok is bowl-shaped, it distributes heat uniformly to the food sitting in the center of the wok. For this reason, food can be cooked in a very short time. The wok can withstand extremely high temperatures required for stir-frying.

You can also easily toss the food due to its bowl-shaped. All these unique features of a wok make it an irreplaceable cooking utensil for proper stir-frying.

7. How to choose a good wok

Always buy a larger wok for stir-frying. Bigger wok allows the food pieces move and flip freely. Stir-frying is messy with a small wok as you cannot stir and flip the food pieces freely as it tends to drop out from the edge.

Buy a good wok. Cast iron wok is the best, which is why it is used in most of the Asian restaurants. Wok hei cannot be created in the stainless steel vessel, as it mainly arises from the burning of the patina of polymers and fats embedded themselves on the surface of a well-used carbon steel wok or cast iron wok. That is why cast iron wok is superior to stainless steel wok.

8. Thicken the sauce with the cornstarch slurry

One of the unique features of Asian cooking is the ubiquitous presence of cornstarch slurry in stir-frying. It is added to the stir-fry ingredients in the last 20 seconds to:

a) Thicken the liquid produced from the stir-fry sauce and the juice of the ingredients. Otherwise, the soy sauce, oyster, wine and the natural juices of the food will not be able to coat every morsel of food but settle at the bottom of the dish as a thin liquid.

b) Create a smooth texture for the meat.

c) Give a glossy sheen to the liquids as it thickens.

It is made with cornstarch and enough water to form a slurry that resembles thick cream. It is good to prepare in advance to keep things flowing at the time of stir-frying.

How to prepare cornstarch slurry:

Add one part of cornstarch to one part of water. The amount of water should not be too high, but just enough to form a thick slurry resembling thick cream.
Make sure your wok is not too hot as the slurry can immediately congeal once it hits the surface. This is especially important if you use the cast iron wok that has a higher heat capacity than steel wok. In this case, you may want to remove it from heat and wait a half a minute before you add the slurry.
Be sure the cornstarch is cooked as uncooked cornstarch will leave an undesirable starchy taste to the food.
For simplicity, you can mix the cornstarch slurry with the seasoning to keep things flowing at stir-fry time.

9. Use a high power output stove

Intense heat is one essential element unique to Asian cooking.

Use a high output stove that can generate high heat that enables every morsel of food to cook through in seconds.

So how can you achieve this at home with your relatively low output stove?

Make your beef stir-fry in small batches. If you do not have a high output stove that can generate roaring heat as in restaurant kitchens, stir-fry in small amounts. It is especially useful if you use a cast iron wok with high heat capacity. This way the stove will be able to generate sufficient heat (coupled with the high heat capacity of the cast iron wok) to cook through a small amount of food in a short time.

The Ginger and Scallion Stir-fry Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Additional Time 15 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Instructions

Put the beef in the freezer until it's half frozen.
Cut the beef into thin slices, against the grain.
Marinate the beef with (A) for 15 minutes.
Remove the skin of the ginger. Slice thinly.
Cut the scallion lengthwise into sections of about 4 cm.
Prepare the stir-fry sauce by combining all the ingredients in the 'stir fry sauce' section of the ingredient.
Heat up some vegetable oil in a wok.
Saute the slices of ginger over low heat until they turn fragrant. (about 1/2 min).
Add the white section of the scallion. Stir fry for half a minute.
Add the sliced beef. Turn up the heat. Stir and flip the beef quickly to avoid sticking on the surface of the wok.
When the beef is just cooked, i.e. the color changed from pinkish to brown, add the seasoning (C),
Add the scallion. Add the Shaoxing wine. Stir-fry over high heat for 15 seconds.
Add the sesame oil . mix and serve.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

5 person
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 558 Total Fat: 39g Saturated Fat: 11g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 24g Cholesterol: 109mg Sodium: 1187mg Carbohydrates: 14g Fiber: 2g Sugar: 4g Protein: 35g

This data was provided and calculated by Nutritionix on 5/22/2019.

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Source: https://tasteasianfood.com/beef-stir-fry/