What to Season Beef Stir Fry With
We have a lot of beef recipes in our archives here at The Woks of Life, then we wanted to show everyone how to set up beef for stir-fry including the pace-by-pace process for velveting beef for Chinese cooking. Nosotros'll recommend our favorite cuts of beef to apply and prove you lot how to properly cut and marinate beef simply like information technology's done in Chinese restaurants.
Nosotros always give important details in all of our recipes, including grooming 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 Best for Stir-fry?
Flank steak is by far the most popular cutting of meat used by Chinese restaurants in all of their stir-fry dishes. It also happens to be the most recommended cut of beefiness we use in our stir-fry recipes.
Flank steak is flavorful, reasonably priced, and readily bachelor. With its intense beefy flavor, all you need to exercise is make sure yous slice and marinate it 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 economical selection for beefiness stir fries. We like using beef chuck steak for stewing and braising considering of the actress fat that comes with this cut of meat, simply it can also work nicely for stir-chips.
At $four.99 to $5.99 per pound, chuck steak is also more than economical than flank steak. Y'all can buy a big piece, piece it, separate it into portions for several stir-chips, and freeze it!
A little more trimming and intendance is required to gear up the beef chuck steak for stir fry. Cut along the fat lines and remove the thick membrane to become some neat chunks of beef for slicing. Employ a good chef's knife and as always, be careful 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 2 to ii 1/2 inch strips.
It'southward easy to identify the long grains of muscle fiber in flank steak. When slicing the flank steak into modest pieces, piece against the grain (perpendicular to the long lines of muscle).
Make each slice 1/4″ thick––each piece will be tender and bite-sized.
Now your beef is ready for marinating!
If using boneless beef chuck, check out our instructions for how to slice it below. If not, skip down to the next section.
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.
Over again, the "grain" refers to the long strands of muscle running through the beef parallel to each other. Cut against the grain ways cutting across those strands, so the long strands of musculus can be made 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 photo, y'all tin can see the pattern of meat and fat where the grain runs vertically.
Since we have to cutting cantankerous-wise to the grain, for this piece, we need to cut the long strip into 2-inch broad chunks showtime.
And and so position each piece to cut them so the long fibers are cutting short.
Come across how the knife is positioned where it will cut the beef against the grain?
Now, cut your beef into one/4″ thick slices
You tin can run across the grain and the slice a bit clearer in this photo, only you lot can imagine that the soft beef can be difficult to handle and slice.
A chef'due south undercover to slicing beef quickly is to freeze the meat partially for 30 to sixty 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 cutting board. Partially frozen meat also allows you to exist more precise in cutting to your desired thickness.
How to Cut Beef for Lo Mein & Other Noodle Dishes
If using beef for noodle dishes or dishes like Beef and Pepper Stir Fry, an actress pace to slice beef into thin strips (julienne) is required.
In Chinese stir-fry cooking, the way ingredients are cutting should be consequent with each other. Rectangular slices of beef are used for stir-chips with vegetables like beef and broccoli or beef and tofu. Long strands of noodles like yous take in Beefiness Lo Mein crave beef to be cut into similar long thin strips.
Beef fried rice requires small chunks of meat to get with the pocket-sized grains of rice. Make sense?
How Chinese Restaurants Tenderize Beef
Information technology's time to share some Chinese restaurant secrets on how to tenderize beef. Tenderizing your beef is the offset step of the traditional process of velveting beefiness adept by virtually all Chinese chefs.
Chinese restaurant chefs have some extra steps in preparing beef for their stir-fry dishes.
The first step is to add a good amount of baking soda to the beefiness––about 1 rounded teaspoon per pound of beef.
Next, add 1/iv loving cup water (per pound of beef) or until the beefiness is merely covered, and massage the beef so the blistering soda and water is uniformly distributed. Set aside for 1-two hours. This step tenderizes (baking soda) and hydrates (water) the beef.
Next, the beef must exist rinsed thoroughly nether running water to rid it of whatever excess baking soda, or y'all volition gustatory modality it in the dish.
Utilize your hands to stir upward the beef during the rinsing process.
Once the water runs clear, bleed the beef thoroughly in a colander and transfer information technology to a bowl for the marinating process (details in next department).
Shortcut to Tenderize Beef at Home
If the procedure used past Chinese restaurants to tenderize beef described to a higher place sounds a bit involved and a hassle, you can still tenderize beefiness using an calm shortcut. Baking soda is a powerful ingredient for tenderizing beefiness, but if too much is added, it can add an off-taste to the beef which is why beef is rinsed off after adding larger amounts of baking soda to the beef.
The solution is to add together a smaller amount of baking and increment the marinating time. Adding one/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 it into the beefiness before marinating volition also do a fine job tenderizing! Increase the marinating fourth dimension for your beef at least 15 minutes. I will likewise say that adding water to the beef is a personal pick. I experience there 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 important 2nd pace of velveting that should never exist skipped. The marinade isn't every bit much about soaking the beef in a lot of liquid or adding a bunch of different flavorings like you may be used to.
It's about giving the beef an extra juicy texture. Accept you ever tried to brand a stir-fry at dwelling house, but the meat comes out dry and not at all like what you've been served in Asian restaurants? Master this marinating technique, and you'll successfully set Chinese stir-fry dishes at home.
After the beef has been tenderized:
i. Add oyster sauce and/or soy sauce to give your beef an actress flavor boost. Add near 2 teaspoons of each per pound of beef.
2. Add together 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 flavor but is totally optional for those of you who are strict about booze consumption.
iii. Mix everything together and set it aside to marinate for xv-thirty minutes while y'all'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 type of meat used for the dish, and also involve tenderizing, marinating and different cooking methods.
Through the process of velveting, meats retain their wet and take on a soft and velvety texture that is a signature quality of Chinese cuisine. The velveting of beef is probably almost common, since beefiness benefits more other meats from this cooking technique.
How to Velvet Beef for Stir Fry
Velveting beefiness begins with the steps we accept explained in a higher place (involving tenderizing the beefiness and then marinating it with seasonings, oil and cornstarch).
The tenderizing step 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 footstep of velveting is cooking, which really depends upon the dish you are cooking and the issue you lot're looking for.
The traditional method for velveting beefiness is to laissez passer the meat through hot oil (substantially deep frying) which is literally referred to as zǒu yóu (走油) in Mandarin or "jau yau" in Cantonese.
In about cases, nosotros adopt to sear the meat in a hot wok, since having a wok total of oil at abode is simply non practical. That said, we think searing beef imparts more than flavor than the jau yau deep frying method.
Some recipes, including soups, will merely require cooking the beef in water as the final step.
And that'south it! Let us know in the comments if you lot have whatsoever questions!
Prep: 1 hour xxx minutes
Total: ane hour xxx minutes
- one pound beef flank steak or chuck steak (450g, sliced against the grain)
- i teaspoon blistering soda
- water (i/4 cup per pound)
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons oyster sauce or soy sauce
- ii teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons Shaoxing Wine (Optional)
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Add baking soda and water to the sliced beef and massage with hands until most of the liquid is absorbed. Let stand 1-2 hours.
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Rinse the beef thoroughly under running water until the water runs clear. Bleed.
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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 and so your beef is gear up to employ.
Brusk-Cut method for Tenderizing beef
Add ane/eight teaspoon to 1/4 teaspoon (for tougher cuts) of blistering soda and one to 2 tablespoons of water to the beef and mixing and working it into the beef before marinating will also practice a fine job tenderizing!
Follow step 3 and increase the marinating time for your beefiness at least 15 minutes.
Source: https://thewoksoflife.com/prepare-beef-for-stir-fry/
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