Recipe Beef in Black Bean - with beer!

[pattyk]

I love Chinese food, and one of my all time favourite dishes is beef in black bean sauce. Looking up ways to make my own black bean sauce, and avoiding buying anything pre-made, I found a great recipe on Food Network, which includes the use of a little beer in the sauce.

Ingredients

200g rump steak
5 think slices of ginger
1 onion, in chunks
1 red pepper, in chunks
1 head of broccoli, in large chunks

For the marinade:

1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
A pinch of Chinese 5 spice mix
2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
1 shot of Chinese rice wine
1 tablespoon of cornflour

For the black bean mix:

2 teaspoons of fermented/preserved black beans (widely available in Chinese supermarkets)
2 garlic cloves
A pinch of salt

For the sauce:

1 tablespoon oyster sauce
A dash of dark soy sauce
100mls of either larger or beer
100mls of chicken stock

Method:

1. Thinly slice the meat and add to a bowl; add all of the marinade ingredients, making sure you add the cornflour last. Mix well and cover until needed.

2. Add the black bean mix ingredients to another bowl and crush together with the back of a teaspoon. Set aside.

3. Prepare your vegetables.

4. Mix together the sauce ingredients, and set aside.

5. Add 2 tablespoons of ground nut oil to your wok and heat to high. When heated, add the onions and ginger and stir fry to soften the onions a little. Turn the heat down to medium, add the peppers and broccoli and stir fry for two minutes.

6. Remove the vegetables from the wok, turn the heat back up to high, add the marinated meat mixture to the wok and stir fry until the meat browns. Add a little more oil if necessary.

7. Add the vegetables back to the wok, along with the black bean mix and mixed sauce ingredients. Bring to the boil. Stir fry for 3-4 minutes which will thicken the sauce slightly.

8. Serve with jasmine rice, and a sprinkle of corriander.

I know it looks like a lot of ingredients, but they're all readily available nowadays, and some of them you'll probably already have in your larder. This is a really nice dish that tastes fresh and full of flavour, without any of the gloopy qualities you find with some pre-made black bean sauces.

Enjoy!

 

[GadgetGuy]

Sounds GOOD!! I may try it someday soon!

 

[Berties]

Not sure what the beer does ,probably best served chilled,you need to be careful with reducing the sauce as fermented soft black beans are really salty,I would probably use a light soy or ketchup manis a sweet soy
The sesame oil is a great ingredient ...I love it

 

[sidevalve]

Beer seems to add a flavour to many things - steak and ale pie is a favourite one. Besides you can always drink the remainder !

 

[Berties]

Beer seems to add a flavour to many things - steak and ale pie is a favourite one. Besides you can always drink the remainder !

It would be a waste of beer! the flavour would be hard to cut through the rest of the ingredients if I was looking for a liquid to put in the dish I would use a fresh infused veg stock ,infused with lemon grass a bit of chilli maybe coriander

 

[sidevalve]

It would be a waste of beer! the flavour would be hard to cut through the rest of the ingredients if I was looking for a liquid to put in the dish I would use a fresh infused veg stock ,infused with lemon grass a bit of chilli maybe coriander

A fair point - the recipe does have a lot of flavourings but it gives you an excuse to sit quietly in the kitchen with a beer

 

[pattyk]

It would be a waste of beer! the flavour would be hard to cut through the rest of the ingredients if I was looking for a liquid to put in the dish I would use a fresh infused veg stock ,infused with lemon grass a bit of chilli maybe coriander

You are quite right about the beer. I made this dish again last night, and although it is delicious, I can't identify the beer in it. I think I'll make it next time without the beer, and as the amount is so little, I'll just top it up with stock, and see if it tastes any different.

I wouldn't entirely agree that it's a waste of the beer though - only using 100mls from the bottle means there's a good excuse to enjoy the remaining 400mls...

 

[Morning Glory]

You are quite right about the beer. I made this dish again last night, and although it is delicious, I can't identify the beer in it. I think I'll make it next time without the beer, and as the amount is so little, I'll just top it up with stock, and see if it tastes any different.

I wouldn't entirely agree that it's a waste of the beer though - only using 100mls from the bottle means there's a good excuse to enjoy the remaining 400mls...

I reckon you can taste beer if you use it in some dishes. I once did a four course menu which included beer as an ingredient in each course! Each course was also accompanied by a different ale. One example of beer you can taste is when you put it in home-made bread. If you add a good dark ale to a basic wholemeal you can taste the difference. Also, I've used Guinness in steak and ale pie and I think you can detect it - but it does need to be a very dark ale like Guinness.

 

[missbishi]

A fair point - the recipe does have a lot of flavourings but it gives you an excuse to sit quietly in the kitchen with a beer

Yes, you'd need to open a beer in the first place in order to add some to the dish. Now we all know that food and drink wastage is a terrible sin so it is imperative that any left-over beer is used up as quickly as possible...

 

[purplepen88]

This recipe is similar to the black bean sauce my mom made when I was growing up. I can remember watching her crush the black beans in a bowl with the end of her cleaver. It was quite a site. I absolutely love black bean sauce with chicken or beef. I have found a bottled version of the black beans already in a paste so all you have to do is add minced garlic, ginger, soy sauce to it. My mom would always add a touch of sugar to the paste as well. My favourite dish is chicken with peppers in black bean sauce. My son love beef with broccoli in the black bean sauce.