Shanghai Steak

Chinese food is much loved in our home – sadly I don’t make it all that often, there’s quite a bit of prep work but is well worth the effort.  Our Chinese evenings usually consist of Shanghai Steak, Egg Foo-Yong, Sweet and Sour Pork or Chicken and fried rice (sometimes just plain rice).

A while ago a lady sent me her recipe for Shanghai Steak and I promised I would try her version when next I make it – it’s only been 2 months!  Antoinette, thank you for your lovely recipe.  I hope you don’t mind that I added peas in at the end and upped the soy sauce just a bit.

This recipe comes together in just a few minutes – as you well know, thats just my kind of recipe and besides the marinating time, cooks in just 3 minutes.

Antoinette’s recipe slightly amended

Ingredients

40ml soy sauce
25ml corn starch
15ml brown sugar
1 onion sliced
500g steak thinly sliced
oil for frying
¼ cup frozen baby peas

Method

1. Mix the soy, corn starch and sugar together in a bowl.
2. Stir in the onion and steak and marinate for 2 hours.
3. Stir fry the steak over a high heat in a little oil for 2 minutes.
4. Stir through the peas and cook for 1 minute.

Advertisement

Chinese Style Lamb, Pork or Beef

When I read about this recipe over at my friend Tanya’s blog, Chica Andaluza, I quickly commented that I was going to get some pork ribs out of the freezer so I could get cracking with making this delectable recipe but alas the pork ribs turned out to be lamb ribs – no matter.  Even though I had pork in mind, this was lip smacking good using lamb.  I will be making this again using pork and beef – just for research purposes of course to decide which I like best.

I amended the recipes slightly mainly out of necessity as I didn’t have any star anise or dry sherry in stock so I omitted the star anise and replaced the sherry with red wine which I always have on hand.

Ingredients

45ml vegetable oil for frying
1kg Lamb/Pork / Beef for slow cooking cut as desired
1 large onion roughly chopped
50g peeled fresh ginger roughly chopped
6 cloves of fresh garlic
15ml water
15ml Chinese five spice powder
5ml freshly ground black pepper
100ml brown sugar
50ml soy sauce
50ml red wine
30ml tomato purée
250ml chicken or beef stock

Method

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan and seal the meat on all sides (in batches if necessary). Remove the meat and reserve in a separate bowl.
2. Blitz the onion, ginger, garlic and water to a paste in a food processor then fry gently until softened in the same saucepan you used for the meat.
3. Add the five spice and pepper then after a minute add the sugar, soy sauce, wine, tomato purée and stock .
4. Add the meat with any juices and stir to coat the meat in the sauce.
5. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer and cook gently for 2 hours.
6. Remove the lid for the last 30 minutes to allow the sauce to reduce and thicken.

Egg Foo-Yong

Surprise, surprise, this is ANOTHER favourite from childhood.  My mom makes the best Chinese dinners with sweet & sour pork or chicken, Shanghai steak, fried rice, and egg foo-yong.  I do try and replicate her magnificence when we have Chinese dinner evenings but we all know, Mom’s is the best!

Egg Fu-Yong

Ingredients 

2 small baby cabbages sliced
1 medium onion peeled and sliced
1 carrot scraped and julienned
Handful frozen green beans
6 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
2ml sugar
1ml soya sauce

Method

1. Place the cabbages, onion, carrot and beans in pot.
2. Add water to the pot and bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes and drain.  The vegetables must be al-dente.
3. Whisk the eggs and add the salt, pepper, sugar and soya sauce.
4. Add the vegetables to the egg mixture and fry in an oiled pan over a medium heat.
5. Divide and turn the segments of the egg mixture and fry until cooked through.

Submitted by:  Val Olsen, Johannesburg