I am not a huge fan of Chinese takeaways to be honest. The grease, the salt, the sugar, and Lord knows what seasonings they use, plus some of their questionable hygiene standards just gives me the heebie jeebies. I have tried so many, from the local takeaways to the extremely posh restaurants, and nah, something is just not right about the food. For the sake of not being a picky eater, I have managed to lock down just one Chinese dish which I order all the time, and I mean all the time. King Prawn Fried Rice. Even at that, at some places it is not so great.
Last Saturday, I was watching the show Saturday Kitchen and there were two Chefs competing in a light hearted Chilli challenge. One of them was Thomasina Miers, someone I admire so much for the way she has brought Mexican street food to London in a big way, with her chain of restaurants Wahaca. She truly is my inspiration, because one day by His Grace my Nigerian street food restaurants like Wahaca and even better will be scattered all over the place. If you watch Food Network, she presents the show Mexican Food made simple. I can’t remember what Thomasina cooked on the show, but the dish of the other Chef struck a chord in me because it was a Chinese dish I truly detest from takeaways and restaurants. Chinese Sweet Chilli Beef.
Once the show was over, I said boy, I am going to try this, and I am glad I did. I made this dish a few days ago for a friend from out of town who was visiting with her family. Staring at the pan when I was done, and tasting it like 10 times, I couldn’t believe I made a Chinese dish that could taste so good and I mean real, real good. As they were facing a long drive back home, I kinda made this dish in a hurry, plus it was already getting dark when I started cooking and we emptied the pan for dinner and takeaway, so I couldn’t take pictures. Yesterday evening, I decided to make this dish again, all calmly and relaxed. It was even better than the last dish, by miles, and that one was really good. I am now sooooo inspired to try many more Chinese dishes, my local takeaway has lost a customer. Full Stop. I spent half the amount of one bowl of takeaway making this, and I have enough leftovers for 2 more meals. Think of your budget on Chinese, and tell yourself, enough, I can do better at home. Lol.
If you have had the shredded beef and green pepper sauce served at Nigerian parties, this is it, but with more va va voom.
You will need
400 – 500g of Frying Steaks – for my readers who buy meat in the market from butchers, you simply need a slab of meat, sliced thinly.
2 – 3 Carrots
1 Green Pepper
2 eggs
Olive oil
1 piece of red chilli or ata rodo (scotch bonnets/habanero pepper)
1 green chilli
Spring onions
Ginger
Red Onions
Dark Soy Sauce
2 – 3 tablespoons of Corn Flour
Water
Sweet Chilli Sauce
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon Curry Powder
1 teaspoon Dried Thyme
1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper – dry pepper
2 teaspoons Jumbo seasoning powder or Knorr chicken cubes
Salt
Coriander
How To
If you are buying meat from the butcher, especially in Nigeria, where our beef can be very tough, whack it a bit with a rolling pin, to flatten and tenderise it a little. If you are buying meat from the supermarket, make sure it reads Frying Steak on the packet.
1. Cut the meat into rectangular strips and set aside.
2. Break two eggs in a bowl, and season with curry powder, thyme, garlic powder, seasoning cube, salt, dry pepper and whisk. When it has fully combined, add 1 tablespoon of corn flour and whisk. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you will face some resistance at first whisking in the corn flour, but this will disappear with further whisking. Add another tablespoon of corn flour and whisk.
3. Pour this eggy mixture onto the meat and combine with your hands, making sure the meat is properly coated. You may wish to sprinkle in another tablespoon of corn flour, if the mixture is too watery. Leave this in the fridge for 30 minutes and proceed to chopping the vegetables.
4. Julienne the Carrots.
This is just a fancy word for cutting carrots into thin, long strips. Do the same for the green pepper, red onion, chillies and ginger, only that you will have to slice the ginger much thinner. No one wants to bite into a chunk of ginger. Chop the spring onions in rings and set aside.
Pour a decent amount of Olive oil into a small pot and turn the heat to high. You are going to deep fry the meat, so gauge the volume of olive oil. The key is to use a small pot, so the oil can be deep enough, without having to use too much oil.
5. When the oil is hot enough, place the strips of meat into the pot one by one, till there’s no more space. As the meat fries, the coating will turn into pastry, and change from white to golden brown. Once it is golden brown, take it out of the oil and drain on kitchen paper. Fry all the strips of meat.
Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: be careful to fry the strips individually. If you drop them into the pot in clumps, they will stick together. See below.
6. Heat up your Wok or Deep frying pan with 1 cooking spoon of the oil you just fried the meat in, add all the chopped ingredients and stir fry, making sure you shake the pan every few seconds, or you stir with a frying spoon.
7. Once the onions have turned translucent, add the fried meat and stir, then add soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce and let it cook for 1 – 2 minutes.
Then readjust again with soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce. At this point I was just dipping the bottle of each sauce slightly into the pan and tasting as I went along. So, I didn’t measure. Soy sauce and Sweet Chilli sauce have a personal preference in terms of their concentration in food, so let your taste buds guide you.
8. With each addition of both sauces, let it cook for about a minute before readjusting. Stir the beef with the vegetables and add 1 teaspoon or 1 cube of knorr chicken cubes and keep cooking. Keep adjusting with the soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce to your preference. Be careful it doesn’t burn. Turn down the heat if you have to. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: by adding more of both sauces to the pan, the beef begins to cook in the liquid of both sauces, plus the water content of the vegetables, creating a glistening sludge around the strips of meat.
One of the things, well two of the things I don’t like about Chinese cooking is soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce, which is why i started using both sauces sparingly at first, but I found that by adding more, it enhanced the taste of the dish, and I was loving it. Be careful though. Taste very often, so you don’t add too much and overpower the dish. You still want to taste the vegetables.
9. The recipe I used says stop here, but nah, I wanted more sauce. So I added half a cup of water, just so I could get a more liquidy sauce, plus the pastry around the meat, will soften with the addition of water, and absorb the sauce, making it taste even better. Taste for salt, I doubt if you will need to add more, I definitely didn’t. The soy sauce already contains salt, plus you added seasoning cube much earlier. Stir and let this cook till you see the liquid sauce heat up.
Add chopped coriander and stir. Leave it to cook for another minute or so, and take off the heat.
better view of the sauce
see the difference, adding the water makes? Now you have juicy and tender meats, plus crunchy vegetables, all in a rich, delicious sauce. Yum
the contrast of colours – the orange of the carrots, the deep green of the coriander, the green pepper strips – art in a Wok
From start to finish, this dish took less than 45 minutes. Including chopping and all. If you order Chinese, you will definitely spend more money, and you will wait at least 30 minutes for it to be delivered.
Feast on the pictures and be inspired………………
has your takeaway ever looked this good?
uhmmmm, yum
Eat straight from the Wok. Remember to boil some rice, Spaghetti or Indomie noodles, and treat yourself to a fresh, homemade, healthy and delicious dinner. Remember to eye the pamphlet of your takeaway as you are sitting down to eat this. Lol Chinese who? Lol
I boiled a packet of Indomie Noodles and sprinkled in a little chopped coriander when it was done. I have never tried that before, and I really enjoyed the difference in taste.
Treat yourself, treat your friends and family to a spectacular dish that requires minimal effort
By now Dunni, you should know I’m a bona fide stalker of this blog.Lol! I just made this today totalling 4 recipes of yours in one week!
I must say it came out great! I tweaked it a lil by boiling the meat just a teeny weeny bit before I marinaded it just to get out some stock which I readded towards the end.
It was awesome! Will def make it again. Thanks Dunni!
You are welcome Ownyee. Stalk away please
Hi Dunni! Whereabouts in the U.S are you located?
Hi Ownyee, I live in the UK
Dooney, I’ve restarted my weight-loss program and “kent” fall into temptation. But this your chilli beef recipe … Lord have mercy on a girl with good intentions…
I am sure you and some hot skinny woman that will make all women jealous. Eat bare. Fall into temptation away. Lol
Hi Dunni, found your blog on Friday through bellanaija and i must say that I’m totally in love with it.
Made this dish on Sunday for my fam. They loved it! It was simply delicious!
Thank you Barbara. Well done. Family enjoying your food is the best thing about cooking
Dunni oooo!!! I love you!!! This is the best Chinese I have ever made! Made this for my boyfriend and his brother and they ate every last bit… paired it with basmati rice and plantain… your cooking will see me to the alter o!
Wonderful to read. If he is the one, you are altar bound. Well done girl
I tried it today and it came out good. Thanks
Lovely to read. You are welcome
Babeeeee,
I salute you. Happy new year.
This is the second recipie I’m trying from your blog-I am eating as I type this as I don’t want to forget.
The sauce turned out great (as you may have guessed :)).
I grated the ginger though as I love love ginger and it blended evenly with the other ingredients. I even added it to the egg mixture for the beef. I also added chicken stock instead of water.
Thanks girl.
Back to my meal now.
Aaaaw, wonderful to read on New Year’s day. Well done. Enjoy your meal
I tried it using pork chops and it came out great
Ooooh, with pork, it really will be delicious. Nice one
Wowwwww U super rock Dunni!I just tried this recipe and it came out very well.my hubby and mum really loved it.
Beautiful. Well done o, and enjoy the praise.
Just tried out this recipe and it was fab! Thanks once again xx
Wonderful to read. Well done.
Doonz of the LORD. Just got a hermes handbag from hubby’s visiting friend from Nigeria for making dis Chinese. Boiled my Basmati rice in coconut milk n added carrots n peas. Den chopped cooked gizzards n added to d sauce,buh followed d recipe from start to finish. U knw how we roll sis. Tank u again hubby always loves inviting people home cos he knows his wife will neva disappoint all Tanx to bin a gud student of Dooneyrooney. Btw I made d native rivers seafood soup yday regretted not making much. Made it for hubby homecoming d man finish d thing I dint even ve a taste of it. Still ve d seafood thou in d freezer so I will make for just moi. Tanx Sis for giving food a meaning. GOD bless you Grtly Luvya scatter Ooooooshey
Really? Please tell the person to buy two items next time. Well done o. Make more of the native soup, please. You need to enjoy it
I’ve got to try this! Pls what brand of Sweet Chilli Sauce do you use?
Please do. I use Blue Dragon
Dunni amazing doesn’t describe you. Honestly God bless you real good. Tried this last night, amazeballs doesn’t describe the meal. Next time will use beef or chicken stock so I can have more sauce but all d same thank you.
Aaaaaaw, bless you. Thanks. Yes, use stock for more sauce. Well done
Just checking this out today being good friday.cant try it now but this is definitely easter Monday’s dish and you definitely will get a feed back!
Please do and let me know how it goes. All the best
Hi Dunni…you are doing such a great job here. once i need new ideas..once am here..its sorted…God bless you
meanwhile please i need to try this but with fish..how do i go about doing that?
Hmmmmn, if you are going to do this with fish, use very firm fish or fish steak, otherwise it would break and fall apart
God bless u.dooney Is dis diffent from d sauce dey use in parties cos that one is more watery
Roughly the same thing. The Nigerian one has more green pepper
Most so called chinese food in takeaway places tend to be extremely westernised. Take it from a native 😉 the authentic ones will have deep fried intestines, braised or steamed offal and all sorts of other more interesting dishes. Each region of china has distinct cooking styles that they are famous for.
Plus, it’s a very economical style of eating. In half an hour, I will make one main dish with some sort of protein in, two vegetable side dishes and a pot of (usually) herbal bone soup to go with rice. For the main dish, only a handful or so of meat is used for two people.
yaayy!! I tried this out and took it along with chicken teriyaki stirfry on a road trip.long story short, it was wolfed down in minutes with spaghetti. Fam and friends enjoyed it! cnt wait to try out your smoked turkey stirfry. Merci Beaucoup!!
Dooney! I too gbadun you. U r simply amazing. I tried this out n even though i left out some ingredients, twas still great. I also tried ur puff puff recipe yestday and it was sôooooo good. Thank you so much