Beef from Chinese Restaurants

magma69

Beef can be quite a tough meat and I love the soft tender beef most Chinese restaurants serve. Could anyone tell me the cooking techniques the use to get that desired tenderness?

SBWife

Beat it with a stick...they normally physically tenderise it using a kitchen mallet prior to marinating it.

FTGFOP

There's a thing they do called 'velveting' which is tenderising using a baking soda solution.

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Vodkat

You should ask Jassha, He is a chinese food guru!!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056077430

stevenmu

I presume you're talking about the small thin slices of beef they use in stir fries and such ?

That's pretty easy to do yourself, just get a nice piece of steak and cut it up into the thin slices, a little thicker than you want them to end up. Lay each piece out flat on the chopping board and give it a few firm thumps with your fist, turn it over and give it a few more. I'd suggest closing your hand into a fist and hitting it with the bottom of your hand near the wrist so you can keep at it without hurting your hand, don't be afraid to hit it good and hard, but don't do it hard enough to hurt your hand. I find this way easier to judge than using a mallet. I also like to season at this point, sprinkle a little salt, pepper and maybe some steak seasoning under the piece before hitting it.

You could marinade at this point for a while if you want, but I just throw it in a medium to hot wok or frying pan with just a little coating of olive oil and stir till cooked through (around 10 mins usually).

If it's good fresh steak there should be plenty of juice from it that'll have browned in the pan and may be clumping a bit on it, that can be nice just like that, but you can also scoop the beef out and add a little drop of red wine and stir to bulk it up and dissolve any clumpy bits.

Alun

Two things that I find definitely help are a) put the beef into the freezer for a few minutes before slicing, not so long that it actually freezes solid, but just so it's firmer, which helps in getting really thin slices, and b) always cut across the grain, i.e. at right angles to the way the muscle fibres run.

stevenmu

Good tips. Another is to cut the piece into smaller strips first that you can then slice, rather than slicing and then having to cut down the slices.

pecker1992

my family owned a very successful chinese for many years..i worked there frm a young age

the method used to make the beef so tender is this

always cut across the grain

pre boil the beef

then run it under cold water until its completley cold

ready to use for dishes then

the beer revolu

Velveting meat

Also, as said baking soda (bread soda) soulution will tenderise as will pineapple of papaya.