At Home with Chinese Cuisine (24 page)
Read At Home with Chinese Cuisine Online
Authors: T P Hong
Stir-fry Dry Beef with Celery
干煸牛肉絲
Well salt production started more than two thousand years ago in SiChuan Province. The mid-nineteenth century and the early twentieth century marked the heyday of the salt-drilling operation and trading in the area around ZiGong. The production of well salt required digging wells deep enough to reach the brine aquifers, which involved very labour-intensive manual work. Workers relied on oxen to do all the pulling and heavy lifting, and the oxen’s working life is therefore quite short. There were estimates of more than ten thousand oxen being slaughtered annually for meat when they were retired; that is why there are many beef dishes originating from the ZiGong area. Sliced beef in spicy soup is another example.
The dishes invented from areas close to the well salt operation are called salt gang dishes. They are a collection of dishes from the restaurant trade, family recipes from merchants and traders, and what manual workers ate.
There are delicate dishes from the first two groups, but especially from the latter. Salt trade was a very lucrative business; salt merchants and traders show off their wealth by lavishing on delicacy
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and rare-find. Manual workers jumped at the cheap and plentiful beef for dishes that have robust flavour to go with plenty of rice and alcohol. This dish was probably one of the beef dishes initially destined for the workers’ table. It is a straightforward beef dish that has a fairly robust, pungent flavour from chilli, SiChuan pepper, and ginger.
The locally produced chilli ErJingTiao and sky-pointing chillies are used for the production of an aromatic chilli paste (
富順香辣醬
) used in this dish. This paste consists mainly of the locally produced chilli, soy sauce, salt, and underground water. This chilli paste is now protected by the Chinese Geographical Indication legislation. If you cannot find this chilli paste in Chinese or oriental grocery stores, use fresh chilli and 1–2 teaspoons of naturally fermented soy sauce for this recipe. If naturally fermented soy sauce is not available, use light soy sauce with a pinch of sugar instead. Avoid dark soy sauce because it will give the meat too dark a colour.
Preparing this dish requires patience and continuous stir-frying. When the beef is stir-fried dry, the moisture in the meat evaporates. What is left is a concentrated flavour of meat, hotness from chilli, numbing sensation from SiChuan pepper, and, to a lesser extent, the pungency of ginger and the aroma of the herbs and spices.
Generally speaking, medium-low heat is ideal for stir-frying the beef dry. If there is still plenty of meat juice in the wok after ten minutes of stir-frying, it means you need to turn the heat up higher. As far as salting goes, take into account the mineral salt contained naturally in the meat; it plays a part in the saltiness of this dish. Spices also add savouriness to the dish.
The Chinese enjoy stir-fry dry dishes with a glass of wine or beer. We tried a bottle of Barbera d’Asti, and it brought out the sweetness of the umami taste in the beef. Ripasso also goes well with the dish; it complements the spiciness and the hint of smokiness in the meat. A glass of Palo Cortado or dry aged Oloroso also matches this dish when the meat is seasoned on the light side. Dry sherry brings out the savouriness of the meat.
350 g beef, sirloin or lean beef from topside by the back leg 80–100 g celery stems 20 g ginger 2 t wine 1 1/2 T chilli paste 1 t sugar salt (preferably from ZiGong) 60 ml cooking oil 1–2 t chilli oil 1 t rice vinegar 1/3–1/2 t SiChuan pepper powder 1/2 t sesame seed oil 1 t white sesame seeds | Slice the meat across the grain and shred the slices into slivers of chopstick thickness and 6–8 cm long. White sesame seeds can come in a small pack already roasted. Alternatively, put sesame seeds in a clean pan over low heat. Stir them about or toss them from time to time until their aroma is released. Set aside to cool down completely. To prepare SiChuan pepper powder, please see “SiChuan pepper(corn) powder” in the Readers’ Guide to Recipes. To prepare the celery, use a peeler to peel the strings (ribs) running along the outside of the stalks. It is not necessary to peel the strings if you use the very tender yellow stems near the centre. Cut the stems against the fibre into segments slightly shorter than the beef slivers; shred each segment along the fibre to about half of the thickness as the beef slivers. Shred the ginger finely. Place the wok over a medium heat. Heat the wok until when splashing drops of water into the wok, they rapidly skitter around the surface before boiling off. Add about 45 ml of the cooking oil, put the meat in, add 1/3 t of the salt, and stir continuously until the meat juice dries out. Drizzle the wine along the rim and continue stirring. When the beef starts to sizzle with tiny oil bubbles enveloping the meat, and the meat sounds dry and light when stirred, pour the contents into a colander with a bowl underneath to drain. Heat the wok over a medium heat. Add 15 ml of the cooking oil and 1–2 teaspoons of the chilli oil until hot. Put the chilli paste in and stir-fry until the oil turns red and the moisture in the paste has evaporated. Add the sugar and stir. Add the meat back in, followed by the ginger. Add the celery when the aroma of the ginger is detected and stir until the celery softens a little. Drizzle the vinegar along the rim of the wok and stir or toss to mix. Taste to adjust the seasoning. Sprinkle the SiChuan pepper power and stir or toss to mix. Drizzle the sesame seed oil and stir or toss to mix. Plate on a dish and sprinkle the white sesame seeds on top to serve. |
The best stir-fry dry dwarf bean I had was in Beijing. It was authentic enough to have YaCai, a preserved mustard green that gives the dish a strong umami taste. Deep-fried, full-length dwarf beans are like green ribbons adorning the plate casually, and the finely cut belly pork had the Maillard Reactions written all over it.
This is the second stir-fry dry dish from SiChuan Province in my recipe collection . Stir-fry dry beef is a dish with chilli hotness and SiChuan peppercorn numbness. Stir-fry dry dwarf bean is one of the SiChuan dishes that does not taste (chilli) hot or numbing but is instead sweet and savoury (i.e., umamic). Presentation wise, the accompanying ingredients in the stir-fry dry beef are all expectedly cut into the similar shape as the beef, whereas the long green ribbon of stir-fried beans are accompanied by contrasting sizes of tiny pieces of belly pork and preserved vegetables
.
Traditionally, the beans are kept at their full length of around 7–8 cm for cooking. The beans are deep-fried in a generous volume of hot oil to dehydrate the surface and cook the inside of the beans without drying them out too much. It is more of deep-frying dry than stir-frying dry. These days, domestic cooks usually cut the beans in half, which is more convenient to pick up and put in the mouth. They also try to avoid deep-frying and take on alternative cooking methods such as pan-frying or steaming first and then stir-frying the beans.
To emphasise its local characteristic, YaCai from YiBin
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is a must. This accompanying ingredient has a sweet and savoury taste that gives the dish its depth. Outside the SiChuan Province, other preserved vegetables or fermented black beans are used. They give the local touch that people in different parts of China enjoy.
350 dwarf beans, French beans, or (Kenyan) fine beans 50 g belly pork 2 T YaCai 1 t rice wine 1 spring onion white, finely chopped 2 g ginger, finely chopped 1–2 garlic cloves, finely chopped salt and pepper 220 ml cooking oil
| Top and tail the beans. Rinse well and pat dry. Rinse YaCai in cold water to reduce its saltiness. Squeeze dry. Cut the belly pork finely close to the size of coarse mince. Heat 200 ml of the cooking oil over medium-high heat. Deep-fry the beans in 2 batches until their surfaces wrinkle up slightly and pick up a silver white hue while still retaining the green colour. Drain them in a colander and leave them on kitchen towels to absorb excess oil. Place the wok over a medium-low heat. Heat the wok until when splashing drops of water into the wok, they rapidly skitter around the surface before boiling off. Add 20 ml of the cooking oil. Put the meat in and stir until the meat surface is dark golden; it should be a bit dry but not dried out. Add the wine and stir. Add the YaCai and stir for 1 minute or so. Add ginger and garlic until aromatic, followed by the spring onion white, and stir until the spring onion white is aromatic. Season to taste. Add the beans and stir to mix for 1 minute or so. Plate to serve. |
Lamb Slide-slipped with Vinegar
醋熘羊肉片
Lamb slide-slipped with vinegar is a dish popular with the Muslim community in the north and west of China. It is also a classic dish from ShanXi Province whereby the locally produced smoked sorghum wine vinegar gives a unique enticing mellow smokiness that no other vinegar can offer. This vinegar is available from Chinese or oriental grocery stores. Keep an eye on the geographical indication protection logo on the bottle for the quality assurance from the Chinese government.
250 g lamb, tenderloin, or lean meat from the hind leg 50 g fresh bamboo shoots 2 spring onion whites, finely chopped 5 g ginger, finely chopped | To prepare the lamb: cut the meat across the grain in 3 mm slices. If the meat is dryish to the touch, mix in 5–10 ml of the water with the meat before adding the salt. To marinade the meat, please see “Marinade (how to)” in the Readers’ Guide to Recipes. Bring the meat out of the fridge to return to room temperature before cooking. |
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 T vinegar 1 T sesame seed oil 145 ml cooking oil For the marinade: 1-2 t water (optional) 1/3–1/4 t salt pepper 1/3 medium-sized egg white 3 t cornflour with 15 ml water For the sauce: 2 T vinegar, preferably ShanXi old-aged vinegar 1 T rice wine a tiny pinch of sugar 1 T light soy sauce 2 t cornflour 2 T water | Blanch the bamboo shoots in gently boiling water for about 5 minutes. Slice thinly. Put the finely chopped spring onion whites, ginger, and garlic in a bowl and combine them with the sauce mixture; put them aside to infuse. When you are ready to cook, drain the sauce mixture with a colander to separate the liquid from the solids. To season the wok before cooking, please see “Wok” in the Readers’ Guide to Recipes. Put the wok back to the heat source and adjust it to a medium-high heat. Add 100 ml of the cooking oil and heat the oil until hot. Add the meat and count to 5 before stirring. Stir from time to time until the meat is separated and turns pale. Drain the meat in a colander with a bowl underneath. Heat the wok until hot over a medium heat. Add 15 ml of cooking oil. When the oil is hot, add the ginger and garlic followed by the spring onion whites. When you can detect their aroma and before they pick up colours, add the sauce mixture. Allow the sauce to bubbles away and stir gently for it to thicken. Add the meat and bamboo shoots. When the sauce coats the meat nicely, drizzle 1 T of the vinegar in circular motion around the rim of the wok. Drizzle the sesame seed oil in a circular motion and stir or toss to mix. It is then ready to plate on a warm dish. |
