Do you ever get tired of making Chinese food that tastes nowhere near as tasty as the stuff you can get delivered from your favorite Chinese restaurant? Good, me too. And I’m sick of it. That is why I am here to tell you two secrets to authentic tasting Chinese food and promising you that this recipe isn’t just as good as your favorite delivery….It’s better.
The pieces of beef in this recipe are sticky, sweet, and caramelized. The green beans are dry fried — giving them a delicious flavor and blistered texture that will have you wandering back into your kitchen to double check that no stray fellow was left abandoned in your wok.
Dry frying (gan bian) is a Sichuan cooking technique that uses a small amount of very hot oil with a longer stir frying time, to cook vegetables or meat to slightly dehydrate them, thus creating a crispy and charred surface. The texture and flavor of dry-fried green beans is addictive and will have you trying to incorporate them into all of your Chinese dishes.
There are a few key things to consider when making dry fried green beans. To start, make sure the green beans are dry with no water clinging to them. Next, you’re going to need to choose an oil with a high smoking point, so that you can get your wok hot enough to dry fry without giving your food a bitter taste from the oil burning. Chinese cooks normally use soybean oil, vegetable oil, or peanut oil, all of which have a high smoke point. I used vegetable oil for this recipe, because it is what I usually have in my pantry. Do not make the mistake of trying to use extra virgin olive oil. Finally, you want to make sure that all of the green beans are cut to roughly the same size so that they cook at the same rate. Make sure to choose a large enough wok so that they are not overcrowded and and have equal exposure to the hot wok.
Once you fall in love with the green beans, make room in your heart for the beef in this dish. You’re going to prepare the beef using the other secret to Chinese cooking that makes it taste incredibly authentic: corn starch.
If you don’t use corn starch, the Chinese food you make will never have the texture that you get with truly Chinese, Chinese food. Corn starch is the secret ingredient that will make your beef both incredibly tender on the inside and crispy on the outside. The cooking technique involving coating protein with corn starch is called “velveting.” Velveting provides a coating that tenderizes, helps with sauce adhesion, gets crispy on the outside when exposed to high heat, and also serves as barrier between the meat and the heat to help lock in moisture. It also helps to thicken the sauce that you will eventually be tossing it with. Once you learn the trick of velveting your protein in asian cooking, there’s no looking back. Let’s get started.
Step 1: Show the sauce, who’s boss. Start by making the sauce that will eventually coat your beef and green beans. Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over med/low heat. Add the garlic, ginger, soy sauce & water. Add the brown sugar and let it dissolve in the sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil and allow it to cook for 3 minutes. Remove sauce from the heat.
Step 2: Slice ‘n Dice ’em. Slice your flank steak against the grain into bite size slices. Toss the sliced steak with cornstarch and let sit for 20 minutes.
Step 3: If at first you don’t succeed, dry fry again. Let’s dry fry those green beans. Add 1/4 cup vegetable oil to your wok. Add the green beans. Allow the the green beans to cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally. The green beans should be starting to brown and blister. Using tongs, remove the green beans from the wok and set aside. Once your beans are done, return the sauce we started working on earlier to very low heat.
Step 4: I’ll never be your beef of burden. Working in batches add 6-7 pieces of steak to your wok at a time. Brown each side for one minute and then remove from the heat and set aside. When all of the pieces of steak have cooked for 2 minutes, return both the steak and green beans back to your wok. Add green onions. Cook for 1 minute.
Step 5: Get saucy. Add sauce and cook for an additional 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the beef & green beans with tongs from the sauce and serve. Top with sesame seeds.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
- 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1⁄2 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1⁄2 cup water
- 1 lb flank steak
- 1/2 pound whole green beans, stems removed
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 4 green onions sliced into 3 inch sections
- 1⁄4 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- sesame seeds
Instructions
- Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over med/low heat.
- Add the garlic, ginger, soy sauce & water.
- Add the brown sugar and let it dissolve in the sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil and allow it to cook for 3 minutes.
- Remove it from the heat.
- Slice your flank steak against the grain into bite size slices.
- Toss the sliced steak with cornstarch and let sit for 10 minutes.
- As the beef sits, start on your green beans.
- Add 1/4 cup vegetable oil to your wok.
- Add the green beans. Allow the the green beans to cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. The green beans should be starting to brown and blister.
- Using tongs, remove the green beans from the wok and set aside. Once your beans are done, return your sauce to very low heat.
- Working in batches add 6-7 pieces of steak to your wok at a time.
- Brown each side for one minute and then remove from the heat and set aside.
- When all of the pieces of steak have cooked for 2 minutes, return both the steak and green beans back to your wok.
- Add green onions. Cook for 1 minute.
- Add sauce and cook for an additional 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove the beef & green beans with tongs from the sauce and serve.
- Top with sesame seeds.