My Cantonese Crispy Beef is a halfway house between chilli beef and a chow mein. It involves a lot of marinating with basic ingredients and avoids a shopping list of one time purchase herbs, spices and sauces. It a basic ‘larder raiding party’ feast.

Beef

Firstly cut lean frying steaks into stripes about 1/2” (10-15 cms). 

In a bowl add cornflour (sufficient to cover the beef). To this add dark Soy sauce, ginger, garlic, Chinese 5 spice, vinegar (I prefer the sweetness of Balsamic), Sesame oil, Sesame seed, and a little water. Mix into a paste.

Add the Beef and cover generously and refrigerate for 12 hours minimum or up to 2 days for best results.

On the day of cooking, place the beef on parchment in the air fryer and cook at 200c for for 18 minutes. Then leave to cool. An hour before making the rest of the recipe turn the beef over and apply more paste if needed and again airfry for a further 18 minutes. The result wil be a crispy mass of beef. This is good!

Stir-fry

For the stir-fry use whatever is in the fridge. White cabbage, onion, garlic, mushrooms, red pepper, and, optional, a can of bamboo shoots including the water.

Place a wok or skillet on medium heat and add generous sesame oil. 

Prepare the vegetables in strips. I use a peeler to create thin strips of carrot. Cabbage is a minimum amount – about 3 slices of 10cm, which are coarsely shredded with the knife. Coarsely chop the onion and use thin slices for everything else.

Add the veg to the wok and stir fry for 5 minutes. 

Add Light soy, ketchup, bbq sauce, and any remaining beef paste. If needed add more water.

When you have a rich sauce, add the cool beef separating the strips if needed and combine well.

Variants

If you have leftover bbq food, cooked burgers, chicken, pork or sausages can be used in this recipe.