Grab Your Chopsticks!

Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 5 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 4

Five Peppercorn Beef

Ingredients

500g beef steak
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine
2 tsp cornflour
oil
2 tbsp five pepper mixture
1/2 tsp salt
250ml chicken stock
2 tbsp butter

Method

1. Cut the beef in to slices. Add the beef to a bowl with the soy sauce, rice wine and cornflour and marinate for 15 minutes.
2. Heat some oil in a wok and add the marinated beef to the pan. Stir fry for about 2 minutes. Don’t worry if it isn’t cooked!
3. Remove the beef and drain the wok. Add a little more oil.
4. Add the stock, salt and peppercorns and reduce by half.
5. Add the butter and when melted return the beef to the pan and stir fry for one minute or until the beef is cooked.
6. Serve with rice or noodles.

Result

Yum Yum? I think so!

Sorry about the picture. I had already half eaten the meal when I remembered that I hadn’t taken a photo!

Preparation Time: 40 mins (including 20 mins marinading)
Cooking Time: 5 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 2

Chilli Black Bean Beef

Ingredients

400g Beef steak
1 green pepper
100-200g beansprouts
100-200g mushrooms
2 tbsp black bean and garlic sauce
2 tsp sweet chilli sauce
2 tsp dark soy sauce
salt & pepper
2 tsp cornflour & water mixed

Marinade

1/2 cup rice wine
1/2 cup dark soy sauce
3 tsp honey

Method

1. Cut the beef into thin strips, and place in a bowl with the marinade ingredients. Leave to marinade for 20 minutes.
2. While the meat is marinading, cut the green pepper into strips removing the core and seeds. Chop the mushrooms into pieces, or leave them whole if they are not too large.
3. Drain the meat. Add a little oil to a hot wok, the oil should smoke, then add the beef stirfrying for one minute.
4. Add the black bean sauce, the soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce. Stir fry for one more minute.
5. Add the vegetables, season with salt and pepper and fry for another minute.
6. Add the cornflour and water mixture and stir until the sauce thickens.
7. Serve on top of rice or noodles.

Result

A very nice dish, the dark soy sauce and rich black beans give the dish a very savoury taste.

Preparation Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 2

Curried Beef

Ingredients

500g fillet steak
3 potatoes
2 onions
5 tablespoons curry powder
oil for frying
2 tablespoons sate sauce
1 teaspoon chilli sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/3 cup chicken stock
3 teaspoons cornflour
1 tablespoon rice wine

Method

1. Slice the steak into thin pieces. Peel and cut the potatoes into chunks, peel onions and cut into quarters.
2. Heat some oil in a wok and fry the cubed potatoes for five minutes, then add the onion and curry powder and cook for a further two minutes then remove from the wok
3. Heat some more oil in the wok and fry the steak until golden brown. Add the potato/onion mix and stir for two more minutes.
4. Add the combined sate sauce, chilli sauce, soy sauce, stock, rice wine and cornflour, and stir until the liquid thickens, reduce heat and simmer for three minutes.

Result

Quite nice, reduce the amount of curry and chilli if you want a medium heat dish!

Preparation Time: 30 mins
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 2

Beef with Mango

Ingredients

500g lean beef steak
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine
2 tsp cornflour
2 medium mangoes
oil

Method

1. Cut the steak into strips 1cm wide and 4 – 5cm long. Place in a bowl with the cornflour, 1 tbsp rice wine & 1 tbsp light soy sauce. Marinate for 15 minutes.
2. Cut the mangoes into similar sized strips.
3. Heat some oil in a wok, add the beef and stir fry for 5 minutes.
4. Add the remaining soy sauce, rice wine, and stir fry for a further minute.
5. Continue to stir fry until the beef is cooked. It should be pretty close to being ready at this stage.
6. Serve on rice or noodles with your choice of vegetables.

Result

Easy and quick, and this recipe has a really nice rich soy taste!

Preparation Time: 90 mins
Cooking Time: 60 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 4

Coconut Beef Curry

Ingredients

350g steak
6 red chillies
1 1/2 cups desiccated coconut
1 onion, chopped
2 – 4 cloves garlic
2 stems lemon grass (or dried lemon grass soaked overnight in hot water)
3cm piece galangal sliced (or dried galangal soaked overnight in hot water)
2cm fresh ginger
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
1 teaspoon grated lime rind (or lemon if lime is unavailable)
oil
1 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon ketchap manis
1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate (mix tamarind with hot water, mix and drain the liquid to make the concentrate)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 spring onions

Method

1. Place steak in hot water and simmer over a low heat for about 40 minutes.
2. Soak the chilli in hot water for about 15 minutes, then drain off the water.
3. Spread the coconut on a tray and brown in the oven at about 100 deg C until golden brown (watch this it will brown quickly.
4. Place the chilli, onion, garlic, lemon grass, galangal, cumin, ginger, turmeric, shrimp paste, lime rind and 2 tablespoons of oil into a food processor and blend until smooth.
5. When the meat is done, remove from the pan, and cut into small rectangles, mix the meat with the paste and marinate for 10 minutes.
6. Heat some oil in a kahrai, wok or heavy based frying pan, and cook the meat over high heat until browned. Add the coconut milk, ketchap manis, tamarind liquid and salt and stir until the mixture is almost dry.
7. Add the toasted coconut and mix.
8. Add a garnishing of spring onion and serve with rice and vegetables.

Result

Very nice! This is a dry curry, so have something nice to drink with the meal. I always enjoy a soothing glass of milk with a curry…

Preparation Time: 1 hour
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 6

Steamed Beefballs in Long Soup

Ingredients

500g lean beef mince
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon iced water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornflour
2 spring onions, chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon five spice powder

Long Soup

4 cups beef stock
Assorted chinese vegetables, chopped finely)
375g thin egg noodles

Method

1. Blend the beef mixture to a paste.
2. Roll tablespoonfulls into balls with wet hands, half fill wok with water and bring to the boil. Place meat balls in the steamer and steam covered for 20 mins.
3. To make the soup, bring the stock to a boil, add the vegetables and cook for two minutes. Add the noodles and wait until they are soft, then add the beef balls. If you wanted you could also add prawns, barbecued pork or cooked chicken for an interesting combination.

Result

One of the better dishes that we have made. A great authentic chinese taste.

Preparation Time: 90 mins (including 60 mins tenderising)
Cooking Time: 30 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 2

Sizzling Steak

Ingredients

500g fillet steak
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 onions
4 tablespoons oil
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon white wine

Method

1. Cut the meat into strips and flatten with a meat mallet, and put into a bowl with the water (I covered the meat with the water) and the bicarbonate of soda. Leave to stand for one hour to tenderise the steak.
2. Heat two tablespoons of the oil in a wok, and cook the meat for two minutes, then drain the oil (and clean the wok if necessary). Next add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and fry the meat until golden brown. Remove from pan.
3. Quarter the onions and fry until golden brown in the remaining oil.
4. Drain the oil and return the steak to the wok, adding the combined worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce and sugar, and stir until the sauce boils. Then simmer for two minutes (I added the wine at this stage as well, although the recipe said to add it right at the end).
5. Serve the meat over the onions, or other vegetables.

Result

I really liked this dish, very sweet and yummy! But it really takes ages to make, although I probably could have done it quicker if I didn’t bugger up so many times ;-)

Ranking with the Lemon Chicken, this is probably one of the more authentic Chinese dishes we’ve done so far.

The photo was from a magazine.

Preparation Time: 2:30 (2 hours marinating)
Cooking Time: about 10 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 8

Malaysian Style Beef Satays

Ingredients

750g Rump (or sirloin) Steak
1 medium onion, grated
1/2 teaspoon lemon rind, finely grated
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground fennel
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon soft brown sugar
1 tablespoon ketchap manis (or regular soy sauce)
1/2 cup coconut milk

Method

1. Trim the meat of any fat and slice into long thin strips.
2. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix.
3. Add the meat strips and mix.
4. Leave covered bowl in the fridge for at least two hours, but preferably overnight to 24 hours.
5. Thread the meat onto skewers and brush with remaining marinade.
6. Place the satays onto a lightly oiled grill and place under high heat, turning occasionally.
7. Serve with rice and a garnish of cucumber and onion wedges (I only used rice).

Result

I was a bit unimpressed with the result. Although the meat was perfectly tender and had a great taste, it wasn’t what I was expecting. I suggest you play with this recipe, maybe adding more sweetness in the form of a tomato paste.

I have heard that people have used satays in a dip. I imagine this could be quite nice. The photo was taken from a magazine by the way. This wasn’t our result! Not that ours was bad, we just lost the photo!