Recipe - Stir-Fried Beef And Peas

One half pound Beef
1 Or
2 sl Fresh ginger root
1 pound Peas
1 tablespoon Soy sauce
1 tablespoon Sherry
One half teaspoon Salt
One half teaspoon Sugar
1 tablespoon Cornstarch
2 tablespoon Water
2 tablespoon Oil

1. Mince or grind beef. Mince ginger root. Shell and parboil peas.

2. In one cup, combine soy sauce, sherry, salt and sugar. In another, blend
cornstarch and cold water to a paste.

3. Heat oil. Add ginger, then beef and stirfry until beef begins to brown.

4. Stir in soy sauce mixture to blend.

5. Add parboiled peas and stirfry 1 to 2 minutes more. (Taste peas to see
if they're done.)

6. Stir in cornstarch paste to thicken and serve at once.

NOTE: If the mixture becomes too dry in step 5, add a few spoonfuls of
liquid from the parboiled peas. VARIATIONS:

In step 1, mince or grind 4 to 6 water chestnuts with the beef.

In step 1, add to the beef and ginger root the seasonings and 2 teaspoons
cornstarch. Blend well and let stand 15 minutes. Omit steps 2, 4, and 6.

In step 3, before adding the beef, add to the hot oil One fourth pound fresh
mushrooms and/or 1 onion, cut or sliced up thin. Stirfry until slightly softened;
then remove from pan. Add more oil and stirfry beef as indicated. Return
mushrooms and/or onion in step 5, when adding the peas.

Do not parboil the peas. After step 4, remove the beef from pan. Add more
oil and heat. Then add the peas; One fourth cup celery and One half cup onion, both
minced , and stirfry to coat with oil. Stir in and quickly heat One half cup
stock, One fourth teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. Cook, covered, until
vegetables are nearly done. Return beef and reheat; then pick up step 6.

After step 4, stir in 2 cups cooked rice. Then add the peas and a few
tablespoons of their parboiling liquid to moisten the mixture. Cook,
stirring, to heat through.

Prepare 1/8 pound thin riceflour noodles as a deepfried, crisp white
garnish. (See "HOWTO SECTION".) Arrange on a serving platter with beef and
peas on top.

From The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook, ISBN 0517658704. Downloaded
from Glen's MM Recipe Archive, http://www.erols.com/hosey.