Beef Chinese Restairant Buy for There Dishes
We have a lot of beef recipes in our archives here at The Woks of Life, and then we wanted to show anybody how to prepare beef for stir-fry including the footstep-past-footstep process for velveting beef for Chinese cooking. We'll recommend our favorite cuts of beef to use and evidence you how to properly cut and marinate beef just similar it's done in Chinese restaurants.
We e'er give important details in all of our recipes, including training and cooking, only I thought it was time to write a post focused on preparing beef properly for the wok!
What Cut of Beef is Best for Stir-fry?
Flank steak is by far the well-nigh pop cut of meat used past Chinese restaurants in all of their stir-fry dishes. Information technology also happens to be the most recommended cut of beef we use in our stir-fry recipes.
Flank steak is flavorful, reasonably priced, and readily available. With its intense beefy flavour, all you demand to practice is brand sure you piece and marinate it properly to make a swell stir-fry. For $vi.99 to $8.99 a pound, information technology won't break the bank either.
Boneless beef chuck steak is a more than economic choice for beefiness stir fries. We like using beef chuck steak for stewing and braising because of the extra fatty that comes with this cut of meat, but it can also piece of work nicely for stir-chips.
At $4.99 to $5.99 per pound, chuck steak is also more economical than flank steak. You can purchase a large piece, slice it, separate it into portions for several stir-fries, and freeze it!
A footling more trimming and care is required to prepare the beef chuck steak for stir fry. Cut forth the fat lines and remove the thick membrane to get some neat chunks of beef for slicing. Use a good chef'southward pocketknife and as always, be conscientious when working with sharp knives!
How to Cut Beef For Stir-fry
If using flank steak, trim off any white muscle membranes, and cut your flank steak along the grain lengthwise into two to 2 1/ii inch strips.
It'south easy to identify the long grains of muscle fiber in flank steak. When slicing the flank steak into small pieces, piece against the grain (perpendicular to the long lines of muscle).
Make each slice 1/iv″ thick––each piece will exist tender and bite-sized.
At present your beefiness is set for marinating!
If using boneless beef chuck, bank check out our instructions for how to slice information technology below. If non, skip down to the next department.
Cutting Boneless Beef Chuck for Stir-fry
Cutting meat against the grain is very important to yield nice tender pieces in your stir-fry dishes.
Once more, the "grain" refers to the long strands of musculus running through the beefiness parallel to each other. Cutting against the grain ways cutting beyond those strands, and then the long strands of muscle tin be fabricated shorter to create small, tender pieces.
It's much harder to identify how the grain runs in beef chuck than for flank steak. In this photograph, you lot can see the pattern of meat and fatty where the grain runs vertically.
Since nosotros have to cut cross-wise to the grain, for this slice, we demand to cut the long strip into 2-inch wide chunks first.
And then position each piece to cut them and then the long fibers are cut short.
See how the pocketknife is positioned where it volition cut the beef against the grain?
Now, cutting your beef into ane/4″ thick slices
You tin can come across the grain and the slice a bit clearer in this photo, but you can imagine that the soft beef can be difficult to handle and slice.
A chef's secret to slicing beef quickly is to freeze the meat partially for 30 to 60 minutes until it is business firm. This makes slicing much easier and faster, as the firm beef does non slide under your pocketknife and effectually the cutting lath. Partially frozen meat also allows y'all to exist more precise in cutting to your desired thickness.
How to Cut Beef for Lo Mein & Other Noodle Dishes
If using beefiness for noodle dishes or dishes like Beef and Pepper Stir Fry, an actress step to slice beef into sparse strips (julienne) is required.
In Chinese stir-fry cooking, the way ingredients are cut should be consequent with each other. Rectangular slices of beefiness are used for stir-fries with vegetables like beefiness and broccoli or beef and tofu. Long strands of noodles similar y'all have in Beef Lo Mein require beefiness to be cutting into similar long thin strips.
Beef fried rice requires pocket-size chunks of meat to go with the small grains of rice. Brand sense?
How Chinese Restaurants Tenderize Beef
It's fourth dimension to share some Chinese restaurant secrets on how to tenderize beef. Tenderizing your beefiness is the showtime step of the traditional process of velveting beef practiced past most all Chinese chefs.
Chinese restaurant chefs take some extra steps in preparing beefiness for their stir-fry dishes.
The first step is to add a good amount of blistering soda to the beef––about 1 rounded teaspoon per pound of beefiness.
Next, add 1/4 cup water (per pound of beef) or until the beef is just covered, and massage the beef then the blistering soda and water is uniformly distributed. Set aside for ane-2 hours. This step tenderizes (baking soda) and hydrates (water) the beef.
Next, the beef must be rinsed thoroughly under running water to rid it of any excess baking soda, or you lot will taste it in the dish.
Use your hands to stir up the beef during the rinsing process.
In one case the water runs clear, bleed the beef thoroughly in a colander and transfer it to a bowl for the marinating procedure (details in next section).
Shortcut to Tenderize Beef at Habitation
If the process used by Chinese restaurants to tenderize beef described above sounds a chip involved and a hassle, you can nonetheless tenderize beefiness using an at-home shortcut. Baking soda is a powerful ingredient for tenderizing beef, only if too much is added, information technology tin add an off-taste to the beef which is why beefiness is rinsed off afterwards adding larger amounts of baking soda to the beef.
The solution is to add a smaller amount of blistering and increase the marinating fourth dimension. Adding one/eight teaspoon to one/4 teaspoon (for tougher cuts) of baking soda and 1 to 2 tablespoons of water to the beef and mixing and working it into the beef before marinating volition also do a fine job tenderizing! Increment the marinating time for your beef at to the lowest degree 15 minutes. I will also say that adding water to the beef is a personal pick. I feel at that place are claim to having a moist hydrated beefiness or a drier beef for stir fry dishes.
How to Marinate Beef for Stir-fry
Marinating beef for your stir-fry is an important 2nd stride of velveting that should never exist skipped. The marinade isn't as much about soaking the beefiness in a lot of liquid or calculation a bunch of different flavorings like you may be used to.
It'southward about giving the beef an actress juicy texture. Have yous ever tried to brand a stir-fry at abode, merely the meat comes out dry and not at all similar what yous've been served in Asian restaurants? Master this marinating technique, and y'all'll successfully fix Chinese stir-fry dishes at dwelling house.
After the beef has been tenderized:
ane. Add together oyster sauce and/or soy sauce to give your beefiness an extra flavor boost. Add together near ii teaspoons of each per pound of beef.
two. Add cornstarch and oil to give the meat a velvety texture. Add about 2 teaspoons of each per pound of beef. The cornstarch and oil gives the beef its velvety smooth texture sealing in juices and protecting the meat during the searing or cooking. Adding Shaoxing wine (2 teaspoons per pound) also adds season but is totally optional for those of you who are strict almost alcohol consumption.
three. Mix everything together and set it aside to marinate for 15-30 minutes while you're preparing your other ingredients.
What is Chinese Velveting?
Velveting is a process used in traditional Chinese cooking to ready meats for stir-frying. Chinese velveting techniques vary, depending upon the cutting and blazon of meat used for the dish, and as well involve tenderizing, marinating and unlike cooking methods.
Through the process of velveting, meats retain their moisture and take on a soft and velvety texture that is a signature quality of Chinese cuisine. The velveting of beef is probably about common, since beefiness benefits more than than other meats from this cooking technique.
How to Velvet Beefiness for Stir Fry
Velveting beef begins with the steps nosotros have explained above (involving tenderizing the beef and so marinating it with seasonings, oil and cornstarch).
The tenderizing step makes any beef soft and moist, while marinating the beef gives it more than umami season and that velvety blanket you experience when eating at Chinese restaurants. Pictured below is the marinated beef before cooking.
The final stride of velveting is cooking, which actually depends upon the dish you are cooking and the event yous're looking for.
The traditional method for velveting beef is to pass the meat through hot oil (essentially deep frying) which is literally referred to equally zǒu yóu (走油) in Mandarin or "jau yau" in Cantonese.
In most cases, we prefer to sear the meat in a hot wok, since having a wok full of oil at home is but not practical. That said, we think searing beef imparts more flavor than the jau yau deep frying method.
Some recipes, including soups, volition just require cooking the beef in h2o as the final step.
And that's information technology! Let us know in the comments if you have whatsoever questions!
Prep: i hour 30 minutes
Full: 1 hour 30 minutes
- 1 pound beef flank steak or chuck steak (450g, sliced against the grain)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- water (1/iv cup per pound)
- two teaspoons vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons oyster sauce or soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons Shaoxing Wine (Optional)
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Add blistering soda and water to the sliced beef and massage with hands until nearly of the liquid is absorbed. Allow stand 1-two hours.
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Rinse the beef thoroughly nether running water until the water runs articulate. Bleed.
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Add oil, oyster sauce/soy sauce, Shaoxing wine (optional), and cornstarch to the beefiness. Set bated to marinate for 15-30 minutes, and and so your beefiness is ready to use.
Short-Cut method for Tenderizing beef
Add ane/8 teaspoon to one/4 teaspoon (for tougher cuts) of baking soda and ane to 2 tablespoons of water to the beef and mixing and working information technology into the beefiness earlier marinating will also do a fine job tenderizing!
Follow step 3 and increment the marinating time for your beef at least xv minutes.
Source: https://thewoksoflife.com/prepare-beef-for-stir-fry/
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