Crispy Beef with Baby Bok Choi

The beef in this dish is excellent. It’s very similar to the Hu-Nan beef from various Chinese restaurants. It’s crispy, very flavorful and pleasingly chewy. I used a flank steak, and it was cheap and tasted great. Since it will be thinly sliced, a very lean cut of meat with a coarse grain works well.

Here’s how to cook bok-choi (which I start cooking when the beef is almost done): Pull the bok choi leaves off the stalk and cut the leafy part from each base. Heat one or two Tbs seasame oil in a large pan and add the bases of the bok choi leaves. Stir-fry and don’t let the oil get so hot to burn the choi. Add a little water if necessary to prevent burning. The bok choi will cook quickly -- keep an eye on it. When you estimate it is about a minute away from being done, add the (chopped) leafy parts of the plant. Bok choi will be slimy if it is overcooked, so only give it a few minutes total.

Mix all ingredients and marinate ¼” thick slices of ½ lbs of steak (1 to 12 hours):
1 egg
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs corn starch
1 tsp rice wine or Scotch (the Scotch works well and is not overpowering)
1 tsp ginger juice squeezed from a ginger root
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp oyster sauce (I skipped this)
2 Tbs vegetable oil

While marinating, make a sauce in a separate bowl by mixing:
¾ tsp corn starch with ½ tsp water, then continue with:
1 Tbs rice wine or Scotch
3 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs Chinese Black Vinegar (this has a great taste!)
1 Tbs distilled white vinegar
3 to 4 tsps sugar
1 Tbs minced chili (I used a little less than 1Tbs of serano, and the dish could have been a lot hotter. This sauce is cooked, so the peppers lose potency. I have also used crushed, dried pepper flakes with excellent results)
1 Tbs Sesame oil
2 to 3 tsps hot Asian chili oil ( I skipped this)

Heat 3 to 4 cups of vegetable oil in a wok or frying pot to 380*F. Dredge the marinated beef in about ½ c of cornstarch on a plate. Shake off excess corn starch. Fry the beef in two batches for 2 minutes each. Let the oil come back up to temperature between batches. Empty the wok of oil and let cool for a few minutes. Add the sauce to the wok and cook all beef pieces at high temperature until they look done (1 to 2 minutes).