Can You Stir Fry Stewing Beef
We have a lot of beef recipes in our archives hither at The Woks of Life, so we wanted to testify everyone how to prepare beef for stir-fry including the stride-past-pace process for velveting beef for Chinese cooking. We'll recommend our favorite cuts of beef to use and show you how to properly cutting and marinate beef just similar it's done in Chinese restaurants.
Nosotros e'er give of import details in all of our recipes, including preparation and cooking, but I thought it was time to write a post focused on preparing beef properly for the wok!
What Cut of Beef is All-time for Stir-fry?
Flank steak is past far the most popular cutting of meat used by Chinese restaurants in all of their stir-fry dishes. It also happens to be the about recommended cut of beef we apply in our stir-fry recipes.
Flank steak is flavorful, reasonably priced, and readily available. With its intense beefy season, all you need to practice is make certain you piece and marinate information technology properly to make a great stir-fry. For $half dozen.99 to $8.99 a pound, it won't break the bank either.
Boneless beef chuck steak is a more than economical pick for beef stir fries. Nosotros like using beef chuck steak for stewing and braising because of the extra fatty that comes with this cut of meat, but information technology tin can also work nicely for stir-fries.
At $four.99 to $5.99 per pound, chuck steak is also more economic than flank steak. You tin can buy a large slice, slice it, divide information technology into portions for several stir-fries, and freeze information technology!
A piddling more than trimming and intendance is required to prepare the beefiness chuck steak for stir fry. Cut along the fat lines and remove the thick membrane to get some neat chunks of beefiness for slicing. Use a skilful chef's knife and as ever, exist careful when working with sharp knives!
How to Cutting Beef For Stir-fry
If using flank steak, trim off any white musculus membranes, and cut your flank steak forth the grain lengthwise into ii to 2 ane/2 inch strips.
It's easy to identify the long grains of muscle fiber in flank steak. When slicing the flank steak into small pieces, slice against the grain (perpendicular to the long lines of muscle).
Brand each piece 1/4″ thick––each piece will be tender and bite-sized.
At present your beef is ready for marinating!
If using boneless beef chuck, check out our instructions for how to slice it below. If not, skip downwards to the next section.
Cut Boneless Beef Chuck for Stir-fry
Cutting meat against the grain is very of import to yield nice tender pieces in your stir-fry dishes.
Again, the "grain" refers to the long strands of muscle running through the beef parallel to each other. Cutting against the grain means cutting across those strands, so the long strands of muscle can be made shorter to create small, tender pieces.
It's much harder to identify how the grain runs in beefiness chuck than for flank steak. In this photo, you lot can encounter the blueprint of meat and fat where the grain runs vertically.
Since we take to cut cross-wise to the grain, for this slice, we need to cut the long strip into ii-inch wide chunks first.
And then position each piece to cut them then the long fibers are cut short.
See how the knife is positioned where it volition cut the beef confronting the grain?
Now, cut your beef into ane/four″ thick slices
You tin can encounter the grain and the slice a bit clearer in this photo, simply you can imagine that the soft beef can be difficult to handle and slice.
A chef's secret to slicing beefiness quickly is to freeze the meat partially for 30 to 60 minutes until information technology is firm. This makes slicing much easier and faster, as the firm beef does not slide under your knife and around the cut board. Partially frozen meat too allows you to be more precise in cutting to your desired thickness.
How to Cut Beefiness for Lo Mein & Other Noodle Dishes
If using beef for noodle dishes or dishes similar Beef and Pepper Stir Fry, an extra step to slice beefiness into sparse strips (julienne) is required.
In Chinese stir-fry cooking, the fashion ingredients are cut should be consistent with each other. Rectangular slices of beefiness are used for stir-fries with vegetables similar beef and broccoli or beef and tofu. Long strands of noodles like y'all have in Beef Lo Mein crave beef to be cut 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 Beefiness
It's time to share some Chinese restaurant secrets on how to tenderize beef. Tenderizing your beef is the starting time step of the traditional process of velveting beef practiced by near all Chinese chefs.
Chinese eating place chefs take some extra steps in preparing beef for their stir-fry dishes.
The offset footstep is to add a good corporeality of baking soda to the beef––about 1 rounded teaspoon per pound of beefiness.
Next, add 1/4 cup h2o (per pound of beef) or until the beefiness is just covered, and massage the beefiness then the baking soda and h2o is uniformly distributed. Set bated for 1-2 hours. This footstep tenderizes (blistering soda) and hydrates (water) the beef.
Adjacent, the beef must be rinsed thoroughly nether running h2o to rid it of any excess baking soda, or you will taste information technology in the dish.
Use your easily to stir up the beef during the rinsing process.
In one case the h2o runs clear, drain the beef thoroughly in a colander and transfer it to a basin for the marinating process (details in side by side department).
Shortcut to Tenderize Beef at Habitation
If the process used by Chinese restaurants to tenderize beef described above sounds a fleck involved and a hassle, you can still tenderize beef using an at-home shortcut. Blistering soda is a powerful ingredient for tenderizing beef, just if besides much is added, it can add an off-gustatory modality to the beefiness which is why beefiness is rinsed off after adding larger amounts of baking soda to the beef.
The solution is to add a smaller amount of blistering and increase the marinating time. Adding 1/8 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 beefiness before marinating will as well do a fine job tenderizing! Increment the marinating fourth dimension for your beefiness at least 15 minutes. I volition as well say that adding water to the beef is a personal choice. I feel in that location are merits to having a moist hydrated beefiness or a drier beefiness for stir fry dishes.
How to Marinate Beef for Stir-fry
Marinating beef for your stir-fry is an of import 2nd step of velveting that should never be skipped. The marinade isn't every bit much about soaking the beef in a lot of liquid or adding a agglomeration of dissimilar flavorings like you may exist used to.
It's about giving the beef an extra juicy texture. Accept you ever tried to make a stir-fry at dwelling house, simply the meat comes out dry and not at all similar what you lot've been served in Asian restaurants? Master this marinating technique, and you'll successfully prepare Chinese stir-fry dishes at dwelling.
After the beef has been tenderized:
1. Add oyster sauce and/or soy sauce to give your beefiness an actress flavor boost. Add about 2 teaspoons of each per pound of beef.
2. Add cornstarch and oil to give the meat a velvety texture. Add well-nigh two teaspoons of each per pound of beefiness. 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 (ii teaspoons per pound) also adds season but is totally optional for those of you who are strict nearly alcohol consumption.
iii. Mix everything together and fix it bated to marinate for 15-thirty minutes while you're preparing your other ingredients.
What is Chinese Velveting?
Velveting is a process used in traditional Chinese cooking to set meats for stir-frying. Chinese velveting techniques vary, depending upon the cut and type of meat used for the dish, and also involve tenderizing, marinating and different 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 most common, since beef benefits more than than other meats from this cooking technique.
How to Velvet Beef for Stir Fry
Velveting beef begins with the steps we have explained higher up (involving tenderizing the beef and and then marinating information technology with seasonings, oil and cornstarch).
The tenderizing pace makes any beef soft and moist, while marinating the beef gives it more umami flavor and that velvety coating you experience when eating at Chinese restaurants. Pictured below is the marinated beef earlier cooking.
The last step of velveting is cooking, which really depends upon the dish you are cooking and the result you'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 as zǒu yóu (走油) in Mandarin or "jau yau" in Cantonese.
In almost cases, we prefer to sear the meat in a hot wok, since having a wok full of oil at home is just not practical. That said, nosotros recall searing beef imparts more flavor than the jau yau deep frying method.
Some recipes, including soups, volition merely require cooking the beef in water every bit the concluding step.
And that'southward it! Let us know in the comments if y'all have whatever questions!
Prep: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total: 1 60 minutes thirty minutes
- 1 pound beef flank steak or chuck steak (450g, sliced against the grain)
- 1 teaspoon blistering soda
- h2o (1/iv cup per pound)
- two teaspoons vegetable oil
- two teaspoons oyster sauce or soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons Shaoxing Wine (Optional)
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Add together baking soda and water to the sliced beef and massage with easily until nearly of the liquid is absorbed. Let stand 1-ii hours.
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Rinse the beefiness thoroughly under running h2o until the water runs articulate. Drain.
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Add oil, oyster sauce/soy sauce, Shaoxing wine (optional), and cornstarch to the beef. Set aside to marinate for 15-30 minutes, and then your beef is ready to utilize.
Short-Cut method for Tenderizing beef
Add 1/eight teaspoon to 1/4 teaspoon (for tougher cuts) of baking soda and one to 2 tablespoons of water to the beefiness and mixing and working it into the beef before marinating volition too do a fine task tenderizing!
Follow step 3 and increase the marinating time for your beef at least 15 minutes.
Source: https://thewoksoflife.com/prepare-beef-for-stir-fry/
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