You’ll be reminded of your mother’s cooking or a rice plate lunch from your favorite Chinese restaurant when you make this Beef and Mushroom Stir Fry.
When I was a youngster working at my family’s Chinese restaurant in upstate New York, we would frequently prepare this dish.
Chinese restaurants stopped serving this food despite the fact that it had been a popular dish for many years. Fresh mushrooms may have been better utilized elsewhere, or it may have been because most places use canned ones that result in a rubbery stir fried.
Even so, you can still prepare this delicious beef and mushroom stir-fry in your own kitchen!
Cooking a rice plate of Beef and Mushroom Stir Fry on a weeknight couldn’t be easier than this. You can’t go wrong with a wok-full of sauce on your rice. Fresh mushrooms can be used.
If you want to go all-out, you might use shiitake mushrooms or any number of other leafy greens and/or a sliced carrot. Everything is at your discretion. A simple stir fry like this allows you to customize it to your liking!
Make this stir-fry with beef and mushrooms and see what you think!
INGREDIENTS:
- 340g of flank steak, sliced into ¼-inch thick
- 10 ounces of sliced mushrooms
- 3 slices ginger
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 sliced cloves garlic
- 2 scallions
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2½ cups beef stock
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- 1½ tablespoons Shaoxing wine
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Combine 1 tablespoon water, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, a teaspoon of oil, 2 teaspoons of oyster sauce and a pinch of baking soda with 12 ounces of sliced beef to make a gravy (if using). Make a beef stew by adding all of the ingredients to the beef. Allow 10 minutes for preparation.
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce, 2 tablespoons oyster sauce, 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, 12 teaspoon salt, 14 teaspoon sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon crushed white pepper should all be combined with hot beef stock or water before serving. Pure beef stock is the only option. This stir-fry will taste like beef stew thanks to the addition of celery, tomato, and carrot. Use water or a beef bouillon cube if you can’t find a purer stock. Just be aware that they might be salty so adjust the seasoning accordingly. To counteract this, simply add more water and cornstarch slurry.
- Take a carbon steel wok and heat it to a smoky temperature. Add the meat and coat with 2 tablespoons of oil all around the rim of the pan.
- Spread the meat evenly in the wok and sear for 30 seconds with a spatula. For another 30 seconds, stir-fry the beef for another 80 percent doneness and return the steak to the bowl.
- Re-instate medium heat in the wok without cleaning it. Add the ginger, white scallions, and garlic to the wok along with 1 tbsp of oil. Add the mushrooms and stir-fry for 15 seconds.
- Next, add 112 tablespoons of Shaoxing wine to the wok’s perimeter and stir-fry everything for about 20 seconds to deglaze it.
- Deglaze the pan by tossing often while simmering the stock and sauces in the wok. Toss in the steak and any remaining scallions once the mixture has started to simmer. Toss everything together in a pan.
- Carefully stir your cornstarch slurry as soon as possible (the water and cornstarch have likely separated by now). Stirring constantly, add about two-thirds of the slurry to the sauce.
- The sauce should thicken in about 10 seconds. Add additional cornstarch if you want a thicker sauce. If the sauce is too thick, add additional stock or water. (Remember that as it cools, the sauce will thicken slightly.) This is the one step where moving rapidly is necessary in order to avoid overcooking your steak. Once the sauce has reached the appropriate consistency, remove it from the heat.
- A tablespoon of butter can be added to the dish at this point if you prefer a little extra richness and flavor from the soy sauce and butter combination!
- Serve your beef and mushroom stir-fry over cooked white rice as soon as it’s done cooking.