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It’s better than the Chinese takeaway, to be honest 🤫

The sauce

Healthy Boy is my favourite brand. I usually buy it from my local Chinese shop, but you can get it from Tesco and Sainsbury’s. They are also available on Amazon for next-day delivery.

Can I use black pepper instead of white pepper?

While they both come from the pepper plant, black pepper and white pepper taste quite different. Black pepper has a rather spicy flavour, while white pepper has a more subtle, earthy taste. They can be a substitute for each other, but I will definitely stick with white pepper for Chinese cooking to get that authentic flavour. A general rule of thumb is to use white pepper for Asian cooking 🙂

Again, I usually buy mine from the Chinese shop, but if you don’t have one nearby, something like this Saxa one will do.

Ingredients

350-400 g beef steaks (sirloin, rump or ribeye), cut into thin strips
1 small egg
4 tablespoon cornflour
½ teaspoon white pepper
4 ½ tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced into thin strips
1 red chilli, discard the seeds and finely sliced
1 teaspoon minced ginger
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

The sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons tomato puree
6 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce

Method

1. Mix beef strips and egg in a bowl to thoroughly coat the beef with the egg.
2. Add cornflour, salt and white pepper. Toss together to coat the beef.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat until very hot. Add half the beef, a strip at a time, and spread it out.
4. Fry the beef until dark brown and crispy, about 5-6 minutes. Remove the beef from the pan and place it in a bowl lined with kitchen paper to soak up excess fat.
5. Repeat with the other half of the beef and place it in the bowl with the first batch.
6. Once you have removed all the beef from the pan, add the remaining ½ tbsp of oil and turn the heat down to medium.
7. Add in the sliced onion and cook for 2 minutes until slightly softened.
8. Add in the finely chopped chilli, minced ginger and garlic, and cook whilst stirring for 30 seconds.
9. Add the rice vinegar, dark soy sauce, tomato puree, sugar, tomato ketchup and sweet chilli sauce to the pan.
10. Turn up the heat and let it bubble for a couple of minutes until the sauce reduces a little.
11. Add the beef back in, stir and heat through for 1-2 minutes until the beef is hot.
12. Serve with jasmine rice.

What’s your favourite Chinese dish? Share with me in the comments below! You can also join my email list to get all the new recipes in your inbox 🙂

Janice xx