Recipe - Szechuan Orange Beef

BEEF
1 pound Beef (I find rumpsteak
better than flank); cut
into 2" x 1" x 1/4" slices
Three fourths cup Pure water chestnut flour
One half cup Water
4 tablespoon Vegetable oil
1 pn Salt

SAUCE
One half cup Beef broth (I use One half cup
water + One half tsp beef
boullion)
4 tablespoon White vinegar
8 tablespoon Sugar
3 tablespoon Dry rice wine or pale dry
sherry
3 tablespoon Mushroom soy sauce
Three fourths teaspoon Oyster sauce
1 One half teaspoon Minced ginger
1 One half teaspoon Minced garlic
1 One half teaspoon Finely cut or sliced up scallion
1 pn White pepper

CORNSTARCH MIXTURE
2 tablespoon Cornstarch plus
2 tablespoon Water

GET READY
Pieces of dried orange peel
(wash orange very well and
peel 1/2")
Pieces and place the peel
onto paper towels; let
airdry 23 days)
Dried red chile peppers (cut
into halves)
2 Coarsly chopped scallion
bulbs
2 Coarsly chopped garlic
cloaves
2 tablespoon Vegetable oil

This recipe is a modification of a recipe for Orange Chicken posted by
Russell S. Finn back in Dec. 1993. The suggestion of using water chestnut
flour to coat the beef was a great one (it really is important to the
dish), but unfortunately I forgot the name of the person who sent it to me;
I thank him/her anyway. This recipe is one of the closest I've gotten to a
Chinese restaurantstyle. Hope ya'll enjoy it.

Beef: Mix together all ingredients except beef. The coating will have the
consistency of thick gravy. Stir in the beef to coat; it will not coat
heavily, but that's okay. After it sits for a while, it gets like wall
putty. Let sit for 2030 minutes; I do it the night before and let sit in
'fridge overnight.

Heat oil in a deepfryer, pot, or wok; enough oil to deepfry the beef. If
you hold a wooden chopstick in the oil and tiny bubbles stream from the tip
of the stick, the oil is hot enough (I use the highest setting on an
electric burner). Add several pieces of the coated beef to the hot oil and
fry for 58 minutes (you may want to remove a piece after 5 minutes and cut
it in half and taste it to see how you like it. I cook it for 78 minutes
until parts of the outside start to turn dark brown; it's a matter of
personal choice).

Put the first batch into the oven (on low) to keep warm while you fry the
rest. Prepare the sauce while you fry the beef.

Sauce: Mix all ingredients together and set aside.

Now: After beef is finished and waiting in the oven, heat a wok on high
heat and add the 2 TBSP of oil. Add the dried chiles, pieces of orange
peel, and scallion (the Orange Chicken recipe calls for 5 pieces of orange
peel and 3 dried chiles. I use 20 pieces of orange peel and 2530 chiles,
but I like it hot. The heat amount is your choice, but I would use 10
pieces of orange peel initially. You can increase it next time if it's not
"orangy" enough for you). Stirfry about 30 seconds; peel starts to give
nice orange smell and chiles start to darken. Add the garlic and stirfry
another 30 seconds or so 'till peels start to brown and chiles turning
black. Stirup the sauce mixture and add to the wok. Stir constantly until
sauce thickens and starts to bubble (12 minutes). Add the pieces of beef
and stir until thoroughly coated. Serve with rice.

You can also serve this dish over a bed of brocolli(sp?) which has been
stirfried or lightly steamed (still crunchy, but not raw). The water
chestnut flour is the key to the crunchy coating. You can remove the
orange peel after it's done if you don't like to eat them, but they taste
good if eaten together with a piece of beef and a couple of peppers
;)mmmmmmmmmmmm.

pete herzer herzer@urz.unibas.ch

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