Beef, mushrooms and pepper stir fry

No kidding. It’s a technique I picked up from Stephen Yan on his now defunct Wok With Yan. I was a devoted disciple of that show. Every week, on the same day at the same time, I’d sit in front of the TV and watch excitedly to learn something new from him. And I learned a lot. But nothing beats the technique of “multiplying” meat.

It’s really quite simple. Pound the meat (he used the blunt edge of his cleaver), cut on the bias into really thin slices (against the grain, of course), marinate and stir fry with vegetables. He did it with pork, with beef and even with chicken.

These days, I am saved the trouble of pounding and slicing beef by buying it pre-sliced. Sold as sukiyaki cut or yakiniku cut, the beautifully marbled beef comes in slices pretty much like bacon rashers. All I have to do is cut the thin slices into pieces about and inch and a half wide.

And to make sure that the beef acquires that slippery chewy texture that people equate with “restaurant quality”, I velvet the meat. Velveting means soaking the beef in a mixture of starch, liquids and oil prior to cooking. Often, the main liquid is cooking wine (like Shao Xing, sake or mirin) and may include seasonings like soy sauce. It’s a technique you can use with just about any meat, poultry and even seafood.

In this recipe, the seasonings consist of soy sauce, mirin and oyster sauce. The oil is sesame seed oil. For more flavor and aroma, there’s garlic. And the starch is potato starch instead of the usual cornstarch (called corn flour in some countries). Because the meat slices are so thin, the velveting time is short — a mere ten minutes which is just long enough to prep and cook the mushrooms, onion and vegetables.

To start cooking the dish, a tablespoon of oil is heated in a wok and the shiitake, shimeji, onion slices and diced bell peppers are tossed together with salt and pepper until every solid piece is glistening with oil. A little water is poured in and, without lowering the heat, the wok is covered. The mushrooms and vegetables cook in the steam.

The mushrooms and vegetables are moved to a plate, the wok is wiped clean and just enough sesame oil is poured in to lightly coat the surface. The velveted beef is spread in the hot oil and left to cook for a minute or so. Then, the meat pieces are tossed around until caramelization sets in (that means the surface of most of the meat pieces has formed a light crust).

The mushrooms and vegetables are added to the beef, and everything is tossed around for about a minute until everything is heated through.