One of Alberta's better inventions in the Chinese-Canadian food
arena: ginger beef. It's a mashup of two classic Sichuan dishes:
ginger chicken and twice fried crispy beef.

Sadly too many places don't use enough ginger or chilies and make
the dish too sweet. Here's a good version, done right:

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
 
      Title: Ginger Beef From Peking House in Calgary
 Categories: Chinese, Wine, Beef, Chilies, Mushrooms
      Yield: 4 Servings
 
     10 oz Flank steak, cut with the
           Grain into 1/4-inch X 2-inch
           Strips
     10 c  Oil for deep frying
           BATTER:
    1/2    Egg
      8 tb Water
     10 tb Corn starch
  1 1/2 tb Flour
      2 tb Vegetable oil
    1/4 ts Ground pepper
        pn Baking powder
           SAUCE:
      2 tb Dark soy sauce
  1 1/2 tb Mushroom soy sauce
      1 tb White vinegar
    1/2 tb Cooking wine
      1 tb Honey
    1/4 c  Water
      8 tb Sugar
    1/2 ts Crushed dried chilies
      2 oz Fresh ginger root, minced
    1/2 oz Fresh garlic, minced
      2 oz Green pepper, slivered
      2 oz Red pepper, slivered
 
  Cut the flank steak into strips and place in a large bowl. Add the
  batter ingredients and mix well with your hands, until all of the
  meat is coated with batter.
  
  Heat oil in a deep fryer to 350F. Fry meat for 7-10 minutes, until
  crispy and golden brown. Drain well. Just before assembling the
  final dish, deep fry the beef a second time for 1 minute.
  
  Meanwhile, in a wok make the sauce. Heat  a little oil and stir
  fry the ginger, garlic and crushed chilies for 1 minute. Add the
  soy sauce, vinegar, wine, honey, water and sugar and bring to a
  boil, simmering until slightly thickened. Set aside.
  
  To finish, in a clean wok, heat a little oil over high heat and
  stir fry the red and green pepper for 2 minutes. Add the fried
  beef to the wok, stir in the sauce, and toss to coat and heat
  through. Serve immediately.
  
  My thanks to Leo Chan, General Manager of the Ginger Beef Peking
  House for supplying this recipe.
  
  From: Lightnin Dave
 
  CBC TV

MMMMM


Cheers

Jim


... Don't restrict Chinese food to an imaginary, rigid ideal.

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5