Health nuts look away now and don’t say I didn’t warn you.
It’s fried. Its salty. There’s booze in it. It is FULL of sugar. But OMG it is one of the best things you will ever eat!!!
You can order this dish from every single Chinese restaurant in my city… but it’s pretty hard to find anywhere else.
It was invented here.
It’s amazing.
We don’t ever get Chinese takeout without an order of Ginger Beef in the mix. Crispy slices of tender beef fried in an eggy batter and swimming in a sweet and spicy sauce. Heaven
Recipe-ish:
Ingredients
- 1 lb steak (usually flank, but I’ve used sirloin too) thinly sliced against the grain into strips
- 1 carrot, julienned
- 1 small red pepper, julienned
- 2 green onions, sliced
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- 1/4 cup grated fresh ginger
- 1 cup cornstarch
- ¼ cup flour
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 3 Tbsp white vinegar
- 2 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine (or red wine)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
Directions
- To make the batter whisk together the cornstarch, flour, white pepper, water and egg
- To make the sauce whisk together the soy sauce, white vinegar, wine, sugar, red pepper flakes and 1/4 cup water
- Toss the sliced beef into the batter and mix well. Heat a couple inches of oil in a wok or large skillet and when it’s hot add in the beef, in batches, separating the strips with a couple of forks. Remove when crisp and set aside.
- Drain almost all of the excess oil. Add in the vegetables and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add in the beef and the sauce and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve.
Let me know how you like it!
Being on a salt and sugar restricted diet is not going to stop me from occasionally enjoying this. Being a Calgarian who enjoys eating and cooking Asian foods might have a small part in that. Thank you for this.
One of the greatest Calgary creations isn’t it Stan?! Thanks for commenting… hope you enjoy! 🙂