Recipe: Chinese Beef Strip Marinade and Chinese Stew

CHINESE BEEF STRIP MARINADE (from Chinese Cook)

"As you may already know, I was busy most of this week and last weekend entertaining out-of-town guests which ate up all of my spare time. In spite of being busy, I did, however, have a chance to get in the kitchen. This is one thing I came up with the other evening. My wife and kids liked it. Hope you do too."

1 1/2 lbs. 1 to 1 1/2" pencil-thin beef strips
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. red pepper
2 tsp. minced garlic
2 tsp. minced ginger
1 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. cornstarch (for tenderizing beef)
1 tbsp. veg oil
1 egg white
Approx. 2 cups broccoli or any crisp green vegetable (I used dried tofu)

About 3 hrs. before preparation time, mix all marinade ingredients Except cornstarch and egg white. Put beef strips in pyrex dish and pour Marinade over them. Make sure all pieces have chance to be submerged in marinade.

Next, gradually sprinkle cornstarch over beef, gently massaging it into meat. Place beef in refrigerator for about 3 hrs. Before you are ready to stir-fry beef, beat egg white until frothy. Place in beef mixture, making sure it is evenly-distributed.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in wok and stir-fry vegetables. Remove from wok and set aside. Next, add a little oil and stir-fry beef mixture, being careful not to overcook it. The last step is to add the
vegetables and mix together with beef mixture.

I actually liked this dish because it wasn't necessary to make a sauce--tasty without it. If you want to, you can also mix in a little oyster sauce or a combination of oyster sauce and soy sauce, adding just enough to coat beef and vegetables in wok. This should be done just before beef and veg. mixture is removed from fire. I actually had enough liquid leftover after stir-frying. Serve over white rice.

P.S. This recipe has a lot of beef in it. If you want, you can use a little less beef and more vegetables which would be more authentic.

THIS ONE HAS LOTS OF ONIONS.....

CHINESE STEW (from Chinese Cook)

"My Chinese father-in-law taught me how to make this a while back when he visited us. If the weather in your area has turned cold or is starting to turn cold, this is the perfect dish to warm you up! I at one time lived in Northern New England, so I know what it's like to freeze my you-know-what off (lol). Believe me, this would have been the next best thing to heaven on a cold fall evening. Anyhow, I'm not sure if I have ever had a better stew. Everyone in my family loved it! Hope you enjoy it."

About 4-5 cups stew meat (feel free to add more or less)
Green Onions (white and green parts),about 5 cups (not typo)chopped in 4 in. segments
Couple of slices of ginger (thinly sliced, about size and shape of a quarter)
3-4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
About 1/2 to 2/3 cup soy sauce
1 clove of star anise** (available in Chinese grocery store, pronounced
"ba jiao li")
1-2 tomatoes, quartered
About 2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup red wine (optional)(I normally use it, but FIL wouldn't let me (lol)!

**Star anise is to Chinese cookery as bay leaves are to American cookery.

Place stew meat in a two quart pot. Add about 1 quart of water. Add soy sauce and rest of ingredients. Stir a little and turn fire on high. Please note that you should pack as many green onions into stew pot as possible.

After everything has been added, the water line should be somewhere near the "3/4 full" mark. Once water reaches boil, do not reduce heat. Let stew boil vigorously until water level falls to about the halfway full mark.

Once it reaches that point, reduce and simmer until meat is falling-apart-tender. Whole cooking process should take a little over two hours. You can add extra water if necessary, but try to add as little as possible.

For those of you who don't like tomatoes or onions in your stew, don't worry, you probably won't even see the tomatoes and the green onions will cook down so much that they are barely noticeable. The soup from this stew has a very unique taste. On top of that, it is incredibly simple. Also, do not worry about exact or near-exact measurements in this recipe. I can hardly wait to make it again!

As usual, please let me know if either one of these is right or will suffice. I hope so.

Brig