Crispy Chilli Beef

Try your hand at this fakeaway alternative to your favourite Chinese dish. You won’t be disappointed with the depth of flavour!

Ingredients

• 350g minute steak, cut into thin strips
• 1 red chilli, de-seeded and thinly chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped into thin strips
• Thumb size piece of ginger, cut into matchsticks
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 4 spring onions, thinly sliced; separate the green and white parts
• 3 tbsp cornflour
• 2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
• 100ml vegetable oil
• 4 tbsp white wine vinegar, or rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp water
• Cooked noodles, to serve

Method

1. In a bowl, combine the cornflour and Chinese five-spice. Toss the steak strips in the spiced cornflour mixture until covered.
2. In your Cooks Professional wok, heat the vegetable oil until hot. Carefully add the beef strips and fry until crispy and golden. Use a slotted spoon to remove the beef from the oil and set to one side to drain on kitchen paper. Keep roughly 1 tbsp of the oil before discarding the rest of it.
3. In the same frying pan with the remaining oil, fry the sliced pepper, half of the chilli, white parts of the spring onion, sliced ginger, and crushed garlic for roughly 3 minutes. Be careful not to let the ginger and garlic burn.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the white wine vinegar, sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce, and tomato ketchup with the water. Once combined, pour over the veg in the wok. Simmer for around 2 minutes before adding the beef back into the pan, coating well with the sauce.
5. Remove the crispy beef from the heat. On a plate, arrange the cooked noodles, and spoon the crispy beef on top. Garnish with the remaining chilli and the green parts of the spring onions, and serve immediately.

Lead image: DronG via Getty Images.