Recipe - Red Cooked Beef With Gravy Noodles

1 pound Boned chuck roast or thick
steak
3 tablespoon Cooking oil
2 tablespoon Peanut oil or deep frying
oil
2 Scallions, coarsely chopped
2 Cloves garlic, minced
One fourth teaspoon Fresh ginger, minced
4 lg Stalks Napa cabbage, leaves
removed,
Cut in 2" squares
One half pound Fresh egg noodles

REDCOOKING LIQUID
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
4 cup Water
One half cup Black soy sauce
2 tablespoon Chinjiang vinegar
2 Scallions
3 sl Ginger
1 Piece dried licorice root
(opt)

GRAVY INGREDIENTS
1 One fourth cup Chicken stock
2 tablespoon Medium sherry
1 teaspoon Ground bean sauce
One half teaspoon Sugar
Cornstarch paste

A fatty cut of beef gives this dish more beef flavor, which is the point of
the dish; rich, mellow, gently seasoned.

RedCooking Meat: In medium hot wok, toast peppercorns until fra grant
(avoid burning); crush & finely mince with cleaver; reserve. Cut beef into
1 1/2" chunks. Heat cooking oil in hot wok until it starts to smoke; brown
beef in several batches; drain oil & discard. Combine peppercorns &
remaining ingredients of redcooking liquid; add to wok. Bring to boil;
reduce heat & simmer, covered, for 1 One half to 2 hours, until meat is very
tender. (If liquid evaporates before meat is tender, add cup of water or
stock and continue cooking.) Remove meat from liquid. If desired, cool
meat, cover and refrigerate.

Boiling Noodles: Bring 4 qts. water to rolling boil; add noodles. Drain
when still slightly undercooked.

Stirfrying: Heat peanut oil in hot wok. When oil starts to smoke, add
scallions & stirfry until fragrant. Add garlic, ginger & Napa cabbage;
stirfry for about 1 minute, until cabbage is slightly wilt ed. Add meat &
all gravy ingredients except cornstarch paste. Reduce heat to medium,
cover, & simmer for about 3 minutes. Remove cover; dribble in enough
cornstarch paste to make a light gravy; not too heavy as you want to coat
noodles, but not too soupy either. Turn up heat; when sauce returns to
boil, add noodles. Toss to mix (& reheat) noodles. Transfer to warmed
serving platter or large bowl.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini