Beef Chow Fun

Gōn cháau ngàuh hó (Cantonese) 干炒牛河 (Mandarin: Gān Chǎo Níu Hé)

Beef Chow Fun has appeared on Chinese menus here and on the mainland almost as long as there has been restaurants.  In spite of this, searching for consistent chow fun recipes is a daunting task.  On the internet, there are as many versions as there are sites, the best being Andrea Nguyen's.  Published cookbook literature by Chinese authors are nearly as varied.  The recipe presented here is the one you'll encounter most often in Hong Kong (a city that rules the roost for Southern Chinese cuisine), and at Dim Sum restaurants, either as "special" item on one of the roving carts, or a menu item traditionally ordered along with the small snacks of dim sum.

Dry rice noodle can be used with acceptable results, but it is highly recommended that you buy fresh rice noodles (Cantonese: ho fun; Mandarin: he fen)these should be available if you live in an area that has a sizable Asian community and grocery stores serving that community. But fresh rice noodles are literally a delicacy: make sure you can purchase them unrefrigerated, or fresh from a noodle maker.  Otherwise, the cold ho fun will often be so stiff and compact, you will not be able to separate the noodles.  Moreover, it's a good idea to use the noodles as soon as they are purchased.  I bought a few pounds of ho fun from a producer on Friday, and by Sunday they were beginning to break down.

Other than the challenges of the noodle, Beef Chow Fun is easy to make, and works well in a vegetarian version, omitting the beef.

1 lb Fresh rice noodles (ho fun, at least 1/2" wide

7 oz Beef Tri Tip, sliced 1/8" thick across the grain, appx 2" x 2 1/2"

1/2 Lb.  bean sprouts

2 tsp fermented black beans, minced

2 lg cloves garlic, minced

1" x 1" pc ginger, minced

3 - 4 green onion, cut into 2" sections, white portion split lengthwise

3/4  small or 1/2 med yellow onion

4 Tab peanut or cooking oil

Meat Marinade: 

1  Tab soy

2  Tab rice wine

1 round tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

2 tsp cornstarch

Sauce:

2 Tab Soy light

2 tsp dark soy

1 Tab Rice wine

1/2 rounded tsp salt (or to taste)

1 round tsp sugar

Sesame oil and a spring or two of cilantro for garnish

Marinate the meat for at least a few hours; overnight is even better.  Carefully separate the strands of ho fun and set them aside lightly covered with film or damp towel.

On high heat, with 2 Tablespoon of oil, add garlic, ginger, and both kinds of onion; toss a couple of times, then press onion to the wok to facilitate browning.  After half a minute or so, turn the onions and garlic/ginger over and press gently again.  As soon as you observe browning on the onion, move the mixture to the side of the wok.

Add a tablespoon more oil, allow to heat, then add the beef slices.  Separate the slices with a pair of chopsticks or with the wok shovel and press this gently to the bottom.  When the meat is browned, stir fry everything for a few seconds, until the meat is barely cooked.  Immediately remove to a platter. 

Wash wok, reheat on medium high, and swirl in the remaining tablespoon of cooking oil.  When the oil just begins to smoke,  add the rice noodles in a layer and gently press them to the wok.  In about a minute, when they begin to brown, flip the noodles over and repeat the procedure.  Add bean sprouts, gently stir fry for a few seconds, then add all other ingredients, including the sauce, and gently but quickly stir fry and mix the ingredients to combine and heat through.  

Pile on a serving platter and garnish with a little sesame oil, cilantro and slivers of red pepper

Lu sun Niu Rou Si (Asparagus with Beef Slivers)

While asparagus is a very recently introduced and not yet a common vegetable on the tables of China, the country is the world’s largest producer of the white variety, and I have no doubt that with the increasing affluence of the Chinese, such delicious western produce as asparagus will be sampled and eventually incorporated into the cuisine.  Its taste, color (especially the green) and particular crisp texture is precisely the sort of qualities that will endear it to their national palate.  The preparation, however, is very traditional, and utilizes a reduction sauce.  This method is common in China but is almost never employed in the Chinese American restaurants, whose cooks can’t seem to keep starch thickeners away from their stir fries.  In this dish, one can very simply substitute pork, chicken, or even lamb, with similar results.

8 oz lean beef (tri-tip, or top round works well)10 oz green asparagus,  fibrous ends trimmed
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 scallions, slivered diagonally, green and white portions separated
Meat marinade:
1 Tab black soy
1 Tab light soy
1 Tab rice wine
1 heap Tab cornstarch
Sauce:
2 Tab stock
1 Tab rice wine
1 Tab light soy sauce
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
Slice beef across the grain, then sliver into matchsticks approximately 1-1/2 to 2 inches long.  Mix with marinade, and allow to stand for 30 minutes or longer.
Slice asparagus at an extreme diagonal, very thin, approximately1/8” thick or less (If it is sliced too thick, other ingredients will overcook by the time the asparagus is done).
Heat wok to smoking hot and swirl in 3 Tab of peanut oil.  When very hot, add beef slivers and break apart; toss, allowing meat to rest occasionally so that it will brown nicely.  After only 1 or 2 minutes, remove beef to a plate.  Add more oil if necessary, and when wok is hot add garlic, white portion of onion, then asparagus.  Stir fry 1 or 2 minutes, until edges of the vegetable begin to brown.  Stir sauce ingredients and add to wok; toss on high heat until most of the liquid has evaporated and clings to the ingredients.  Plate and garnish with sesame oil and slivered carrot.

Chen Pi Niu Rou (Tangerine Flavored Beef)

You’ll find this dish on many stateside restaurant menus, especially those purporting to be Sichuan, Hunan, and even “northern” inspired.  This version tries to be rigorously traditional, with hardly any ingredients besides tangerine peel and beef, such brevity of ingredients being typical of mainland Chinese cuisine.


While you will see this recipe translated into English as both “Tangerine Flavored beef” and “Orange Flavored Beef,” the Chinese tradition sees less of a  distinction between the two.   Tangerine, a type of small orange, is an English word deriving from Tangiers, the port from which these fruits were first shipped to Europe.  On the other hand, orange citrus was known to China from earliest times and their remnants found in Han tombs.  Today, anyone visiting Western China will notice small curls of orange peel drying on strings and in window sills in nearly every household.  Even though small oranges have been savored in the Mainland for centuries, only a handful of cooked dishes feature them, Chen Pi Niu Rou being the best known.  It is delicious on several levels, especially the balance of sweet opposed to the bitterness of the peel, the eating of which may be an acquired taste for Westerners.


If you have not air-dried orange or tangerine peel yourself in preparation for this dish, you can purchase the ingredient at a Chinese grocery, although it is not recommended.  (To dry your own, just as most Chinese do, peel fresh tangerines or small, thin-skinned organges and dry the skins for several days in a drafty area or in an oven for about 1-1/2 hours at 110 degrees).


12 oz beef tri tip, sliced 1/8” x 2 “ by 1” or so
Dried tangerine peel from 2  small tangerines (appx. 20 pcs, 1/2” x 1” or so)


Marinade for beef slices:
2 thick slices of ginger, crushed with the flat side of cleaver
1 Tab light soy sauce
1 Tab Shaoxing wine or sherry
2 tsp cornstarch


Stir fry ingredients:
6 scallions, cut diagonally into sections, approx 1” long
        separate white and green portions
6 lg dried chilis, sliced diagonal into 3/4 – 1” sections
4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 - 2 tsp Sichuan peppercorn, roasted and ground
1 Tab rice wine


Sauce:
2 Tab soy
4 Tab stock
2 Tab tangerine soaking water
1-1/2 Tab sugar


Soak dried orange peel in enough hot water to cover and allow to soften for an hour or more.
Add crushed ginger to the other marinade ingredients and allow to infuse while the beef is sliced as described.  Mix beef slices with marinade, discarding ginger.
Heat wok until smoking, add 3 or 4 Tab of oil,  and add beef slices.  Brown the meat for 3 minutes or so, then remove.  Add a little more oil, if necessary, and when oil begins to smoke, add white portion of the scallion,  stir fry a little, then add chilis, tangerine peel, garlic and Sichuan peppercorn.  When chilis are browned, deglaze with wine.  On high heat add back the beef slices and green onion; add the sauce mixture after mixing it thoroughly, and toss everything until liquid is reduced enough to glaze the meat.  Toss, plate and garnish with cilantro or slivered scallion.

Hao You Niu Rou (Oyster Sauce Beef)

Beef has been a part of Chinese cooking since the 12th Century BC, but the popular sauce made from oysters is relatively new, arriving in the late 19th century.  Many Westerners unaccustomed to the cuisine approach this concoction skeptically, but are won over by its velvety texture, its mild, sweet and savory flavor.  It is found in almost every restaurant in the United States, used variously as a flavoring in Chinese-American dishes, and is an important garnish to simple vegetable dishes such as gai lan (Chinese brocoli--see recipe for jie lan elsewhere on this site).  As always, many variations of this popular Cantonese dish exist, even in China, but they mostly entail differences of vegetable ingredients such as mushrooms, green peppers, carrot, bamboo shoots, snow peas, snap peas, asparagus, gai lan, bocoli, etc.  I prefer the snow peas for their sweetness and delightfully crunchy texture; otherwise, this is a beef dish, with only the textural and visual accent of a few peas, onions, and mushrooms accompanying the meat.

11 –12 oz beef (tri-tip, strip steak, sirloin)
3 green onions, white portion and green cut into 1-1/2” sections
4 - 5 thin slices of ginger
4 chinese dried mushrooms3 oz snow peas, stem trimmed, and wiped dry

Marinade:
1 Tab soy sauce
1 Tab rice wine (Editor’s note: or dry sherry)1 tsp sugar
2 tsp cornstarch

Sauce:
1 Tab rice wine
1 Tab soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
2 Tab chicken or beef stock
1-1/2 to 2 Tab Oyster Sauce (Editor’s note: Lee Kum Kee premium is best)
Sesame oil and Slivered carrot or red pepper for garnish

Slice the meat across the grain, 1/8” thick, into small strips, approximately 3/4” by 2” or so.  Combine the meat with the marinade ingredients and set aside for at least a half hour.
Submerge the mushrooms in hot tap water for at least 30 minutes to hydrate them, then squeeze the water out with a towel.  Cut the stem out and slice the mushroom into two or three pieces; mix the pieces with a splash of soy and rice wine to enhance the flavor.   Finely shred a small piece of carrot or red pepper for garnish.
Heat 4 Tab of oil in wok until smoking; stir fry beef for one or two minutes, allowing it to rest occasionally on the sides of the wok, until it begins to brown, remove with bamboo strainer or slotted spoon and set aside.  Reheat wok to high, and as soon as it begins to smoke, add green onion and ginger slices and quickly stir fry until onion just begins to brown on the edges, then toss in mushrooms and snow peas, frying for 30 seconds or so.  Splash in wine, then soy sauce, vinegar, stock and oyster sauce.  Toss the mixture until it is boiling vigorously, then, as it begins to reduce, add back the sliced meat.  Toss, and when sauce has reduced enough to coat the ingredients without too much puddling in the bottom of the wok, pour onto a small platter and garnish with sesame oil and slivered vegetable.

Pock Marked Old Lady Beancurd (Ma Po Dou Fu)

Pock Marked Old Lady Beancurd (Ma Po Dou Fu)

The genesis of Ma Po Dou fu (Pock-marked Old Lady Bean Curd) is well established, if not true: the story goes that the dish was invented by the wife of master chef living in the Qing dynasty—Chen Shen Fu—whose face was scarred by smallpox. True or not, it is one of the famous Sichuan dishes--even Cantonese restaurants list it in their menus.


Hua Jiao (lit: flower pepper), perhaps the most interesting ingredient used in Chinese cuisine, is an essential ingredient in this dish; known in English as Sichuan Peppercorn, and by it’s nickname “tongue numbing spice," hua jiao is not spicy hot like western black pepper, but rather aromatic, slightly astringent, and does indeed temporarily numb the tongue—it’s an acquired taste for many neophytes. In Sichuan, the seasoning is heaped upon Ma po dou fu and certain firey soups, in addition to being used as a dry rub and ingredient in dipping salt. Once one gets used to hua jiao, it is impossible to imagine the dish without it.

3 oz pork or beef minced and marinated in soy, wine, sugar and cornstarch
14 oz firm bean curd (dou fu), rinsed, drained and cut into 1/2” cubes

3 large cloves of garlic, minced
1” x 2” pc fresh ginger, minced
3-4 green onions, minced
2 tsp Chili paste mixed with 2 tsp sugar

Sauce:

6 fluid oz of chicken stock
3-4 Tab soy sauce
1 Tab dark soy
1 tsp Chingkiang vinegar
1 Tab Shao Xing wine
Cornstarch slurry  (See "Thickening Sauces" on Technique Page)

Garnish:

Chopped cilantro with stems, or slivered green onion tops.
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, dry-roasted lightly to freshen, and ground
1 Tab sesame oil

Heat wok to medium high; add 3 – 4 Tab peanut oil, coat pan, then toss in the garlic, ginger and minced onion and stir-fry for 20 seconds; add minced pork or beef and stir-fry until slightly browned. Add chili bean paste/sugar mixture and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add sauce ingredients, and when it boils, add dou fu cubes. Return to a boil, simmer for one minute. Add cornstarch or potato starch slurry and gently fold over the wok contents until sauce thickens—Note: the moisture in the dou fu will thin the sauce as the dish cools, so make sauce somewhat more viscous than usual.

Served the Ma Po Dou Fu in a shallow bowl or plate with sides to prevent spilling. Garnish with ground hua jiao, sesame oil, and cilantro or onion.