Crispy beef

by Barry Lewis

Prep time
5 mins
Cook time
20 mins

Ingredients

Vegetable oil for frying
1 sirloin steak, sliced into thing strips
5tbsp cornflour
1tbsp chinese five spice flavouring
1 spring onion, finely chopped
1 green pepper, de-seeded and chopped
1 red chilli, de-seeded and chopped into small strips
1tbsp ginger, grated
2 garlic cloves, chopped
½ orange, juice only
1tbsp sesame oil
60ml soy sauce
2tbsp white wine vinegar
40g brown sugar

Ok, you’ll love this recipe for crispy beef, if you prepare correctly and do the items in order how I write them here you’ll have this recipe ready in 20 minutes, that was how long it took me to make this homemade Chinese takeaway clone and I was filming the recipe!

First up get a large saucepan and a wok. Pour vegetable oil into the wok and warm it up as you do the other steps.

Get the strips of beef coat them in a light dusting of Chinese five spice, gently rubbing the mix into the beef. Then dunk them in a bowl of cornflour, make sure they are coated, then leave them for 5 minutes. The moisture in the beef will absorb the cornflour and you’ll need to coat again to make sure they get extra crispy.

For the time being add a tbsp vegetable oil to the large saucepan and cook the chilli, spring onion and peppers for 5 minutes stirring frequently. We are just softening them up at this stage, do not overcook them or blister the peppers. After 5 minutes turn off the heat and allow to cool.

Dunk the beef strips again and hopefully by this time your oil should be ready, you can test this by dropping in a spare piece of beef and if it sizzles you are ready to go. So make sure your beef is coated but shake off any excess, carefully lower the strips in batches into the wok and fry for 2-3 minutes. Place them on some kitchen towel to drain away the excess fat and leave to cool, test them once a little cooled to check you are happy with the crispness, some people want them more chewy.

In the large saucepan with the peppers etc left in, add all the remaining ingredients – the ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, orange juice, sesame oil, soy, vinegar and sugar, mix well for a minute over a medium flame, then tip in the crispy beef pieces. Continue to heat and stir and you will start to notice the sauce thickening up and coating the crispy beef, once thickened but still with a little movement and clinging to the beef it’s ready to serve immediately.

Pile it on some egg fried rice or rice noodles and garnish with some extra sesame seeds if you wish.

Absolutely delicious and incredibly simple homemade takeaway! Like this why not try homemade sesame toast too?!