Introduction

This article describes how to make crispy beef using a traditional Chinese recipe. The exact Chinese name for the dish I am about to describe is “Guo Bao Rou”, which literally means “wok wraps meat”. There is another famous dish similar to this called “Hui Guo Rou”, which literally means “putting the meat back in the wok”.

The meat of both dishes is usually pork. However, due to my Hui ethnicity, I will use beef instead. In the north of China we usually say that this is a “lady’s” dish, because it has a very mild sweet and sour touch.

Ingredients

• Beef. Typically, I use lean steak, which should be cut in very thin layers.
• Egg and flour.
• Light soy sauce, salt, ginger, spring onion, tomato sauce (or ketchup), rice vinegar, white sugar, cornmeal and cooking wine.

Preparation

• Slice the meat. Ideally, the pieces should not be too small (at least 6-8 cm long) and should be cut into very thin layers.
• Prepare the ‘covering mass’. Beat an egg in the bowl, then put flour, a little water, half a teaspoon of salt, a few drops of light soy sauce, mix well, and then put the sliced ​​meat.
• Chop a piece of ginger and a whole spring onion into strips.
• Add one and a half tablespoons of cornmeal and mix well with 4-5 tablespoons of water.
• Pour oil into the wok (2 cm or more) and turn the heat to medium.
• When the oil is hot, place the well-battered beef with the batter in the oil, continuing to turn until both sides are cooked through; then, put the meat on a plate.
• Fry the meat. After frying the meat with the batter, let it cool down a little, then turn on the fire, heat the oil again, fry the meat again, this way you can make the surface of the meat very crispy.
• Put the clean wok back on high heat, pour a little oil, half a cup of tomato sauce (or ketchup), 2 tablespoons of white sugar, 1 tablespoon of cooking wine, 2-3 tablespoons of rice vinegar, spring chopped onion and ginger at last.
• After mixing everything, pour in the prepared mixture of cornmeal and water.
• When the sauce begins to bubble, add the well-fried pieces of meat, let the sauce cover the pieces of meat well, remove everything and serve on a plate.

The last three steps must be done very quickly because the surface of the meat pieces must not be soaked in the sauce. Otherwise the meat will become softer and the goal is to have a very crispy first bite. Although this dish is fried in oil, it is not very greasy (especially with the fresh smell of spring onion and ginger).