DAI-STYLE STIR-FRIED BEEF

SOURCE: GEORGIA FREEDMAN. COOKING SOUTH OF THE CLOUDS: RECIPES AND STORIES FROM CHINA'S YUNNAN PROVINCE.

Every Dai household in Yunnan’s Xishuangbanna Prefecture keeps a cilantro and mint garden to constantly suffice their culinary necessity for herbaceous combinations to their dishes. Mint often pairs with stir-fried aged beef and chili peppers in authentic Yunnanese cooking to bring a cleansing aftertaste and soothing coolness against the rich flavors and spicy heat.

Ingredients

1/4 cup/60 mL vegetable oil

1 tablespoon/6 grams finely chopped ginger

3 to 10 hot red chili peppers, preferably bird’s eye chili, thinly sliced

1 1/2 cups/340 grams ground beef chuck, preferably aged

1 1/2 tablespoons/23 mL light soy sauce

3 cups/90 grams coarsely chopped mint leaves, preferably picked fresh on the same day for best results

2 cups/30 grams coarsely chopped cilantro, preferably picked fresh on the same day for best results

Specific Equipment

Chinese wok

Wok shovel

Serves 4

Instructions

1. Pour the oil into a Chinese wok set over high heat and heat until smoking.

2. Stir in the ginger, red chili peppers, and ground beef and fry for 5 minutes, stirring and flipping everything frequently and breaking the beef into smaller pieces with a wok shovel, or until the beef has browned completely and the mixture is well-blended.

3. Stir in the soy sauce by pouring across the side of the wok in an arc-shaped movement. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until the beef has absorbed the soy sauce. Stir in the mint and cilantro and cook for 1 minute or until the mixture is well-blended and the leaves have slightly wilted.

4. Remove the wok from heat and transfer the beef mixture onto a serving platter.