Wok Wednesdays | Spicy Dry-Fried Beef

Wok Wednesdays wokking through Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge
by Grace Young

This week's recipe is a little more time consuming in prep and cook time, than past recipes. This dish took a whole ten minutes to cook! Whereas the others take maybe half that time. Yet, you still won't get take-out that quick, or have it taste as fabulous as this stir-fry tasted.

Mise en place.

Bowl 1: Carrot, celery, dried red pepper

Bowl 2: Flank steak

Bowl 3: Soy Sauce

Bowl 4: Ginger, garlic

Bowl 5: Sesame oil

Bowl 6: Scallions

Bowl 7: Salt, pepper

To prep the meat for this recipe, you cut the flank steak in two-inch-wide strips along the grain. Then cut across the grain into quarter-inch-thick slices. Stack the slices, and give them one more cut.

Normally when we stir-fry beef dishes, the meat is mixed with some soy sauce and rice wine, and a few other ingredients - a marinade of sorts. Here we are using a technique called dry-frying; where the meat is cooked in a small amount of oil, but does not use any other liquids, such as stock or sauce, and is cooked for a longer period of time, which intensifies the flavor.

The carrots lent a sweetness to the slightly salty beef, and the chili peppers gave off the perfect amount of heat (you wouldn't think that three small red chili peppers tossed in whole, aside from a small snip at one end, would emit as much heat as they did); the flavor was incredible. 

This was one wokalicious stir-fry! 

We are asked not to post the recipes here on our blog. If you would like the recipe, you will find it on page 70 of  Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge, which you can purchase at your local bookstore or find it at your local library. I highly recommend purchasing the book - you won't be disappointed. 

Wok Wednesdays is an online cooking group. If you would like information about joining us, click here, or visit us on Facebook. Would love for you to wok along with us!

WW: Classic Dry-Fried Pepper and Salt Shrimp

Wok Wednesdays cooking thru Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge
By Grace Young




Very few ingredients cooked in a flash!

I make shrimp fairly often but have always sautéed them in a fry pan over medium heat. What a difference it makes to stir-fry them over high heat in the wok. The shrimp turned out moist and succulent; so much so I kept looking to make sure they were indeed cooked through - and they were.

I made one deviation in regard to the ingredients. I used a serrano pepper in place of the jalapeño. For me, I could have used more than the one teaspoon the recipe called for. (I like my food spicy.) One other change I would make with this recipe as well as others is to use less oil for these were a tad on the oily side.

The shrimp has good flavor attributed to the Sichuan peppers. You really need to go get yourself some if you haven't tried them. They have a unique flavor that I just can't explain. They would make a great addition to your spice collection.

Success meter (1-3): 3

Rinsed in a salt water bath and dried before stir-frying.

So few ingredients:

Shrimp, ginger, garlic, serrano pepper, oil, and

a spice mixture made up of Sichuan peppercorns,

salt and sugar.

Check out Wok Wednesdays LYL link to see the results of my fellow wokkers!

You will not find the recipe here on my blog or within the Wok Wednesdays community. We encourage readers to go and purchase this book at their local independent bookstore or on-line.