MONDAY MORNING RECIPE POST - BEEF CHOW MEIN

A very tasty dish found at  Kitchen Sanctuary hosted by Nicky.  Thanks Nicky, this was a delicious recipe.  The original recipe can be found here.  A lot of good tips at her website, and more great recipes I will be trying.

Beef Chow Mein 

Serves 4

470 calories per serving

From prep to table in approximately 30 minutes

150 g (5.3 oz) dried chow mein noodles - or dried fine egg noodles

3 tbsp sunflower oil

300 g (10.5 oz) thin sirloin, skirt or flank steak - sliced thinly, against the grain 

¼ tsp garlic salt

½ tsp black pepper

1 small onion - peeled and sliced

2 cloves garlic - peeled and minced

1 carrot - peeled and sliced into matchsticks

½ green bell pepper - deseeded and sliced

¼ cabbage - thinly sliced

100 g (3.5 oz) beansprouts

Chow Mein Sauce:

1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp Chinese rice wine

2 tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)

2 tbsp hoisin sauce

90 ml (⅓ cup) beef stock

1 tbsp sesame oil

¼ tsp white pepper

To Serve:

chopped spring onions (scallions)

sesame seeds

chilli flakes

Cook the chow mein noodles, in boiling water, as per the pack instructions, then drain and run under cold water to stop them sticking together.

While the noodles are cooking, make the chow mein sauce. In a small bowl, mix together the cornflour, soy sauce, and Chinese rice wine, until the cornflour is fully incorporated.

Add kecap manis, hoisin sauce, beef stock, sesame oil, and white pepper. Mix together to combine and put to one side.

Heat two tablespoons of the oil in a wok over a high heat.

Season the steak strips in the garlic salt and pepper, then add to the wok and fry for 2-3 minutes, turning once or twice, until the steak is just cooked.

Remove the steak from the pan with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl.

Add the remaining one tablespoon of oil to the wok

Add the onion, garlic, and carrot, and fry for 3 minutes, regularly tossing everything together with a spatula.

Add the green pepper, cabbage, and beansprouts and fry again for 2 minutes, keeping everything moving in the wok with your spatula.

Now add the steak strips back to the wok, along with the noodles. Pour the chow mein sauce over the top.

Stir fry everything together for 2-3 minutes, tossing regularly with a set of tongs, until the noodles are hot.

Serve topped with spring onions, sesame seeds, and chilli flakes.

Nicky's Notes: 

Freeze the Steak - just a little

Place the steak in the freezer for 30-40 minutes before slicing. This will make the meat firmer and easier to slice thinly.

Can I make it ahead and/or freeze?

Nicky does not recommend making this dish ahead, it tastes much better when eaten right away.

Ingredient swaps

Swap out the steak for chicken or prawns. Add different vegetables - mushrooms, bamboo shoots, red peppers and mange tout all work great!

Full address below if you would rather copy and paste to get to Nicky's website.

https://www.kitchensanctuary.com/beef-chow-mein/

Our changes and what did we think?

It was a delicious combination of food and flavors. We thought it was an excellent dish.  As we most often do, we changed some ingredients with what we had in our supplies.

For the beef we bought an already marinated uncooked container of sliced beef from our local Asian grocery. We have bought it several times and have used it on its own or in stirfrys. This no doubt changed the flavor of our version but everything tasted great and we were very happy with the result.

Instead of using the dried or fine egg noodles, we used dried Ramen Noodles, removing the season packet before cooking while following the directions on the packet.

We didn't have any sweet bell pepper and used a packet of sliced mushrooms. We also had Bok Choy in the fridge and used that instead of the cabbage.

We added extra beansprouts on top of our meal at the table, along with toasted sesame seeds.

We had enough left for another meal the next day   It tasted even better.

Additional note: blogging friend Ann mentioned in her comment that she didn’t have a wok. I forgot to add originally that we don’t have one either and used a frying pan big enough for the ingredients.  

A great dish, wonderful flavors.