I love 水煮牛肉. However, the authentic version we eat at restaurants is too spicy for me, even after I asked for little spicy or mild 😅.
So here is the recipe I adapted to make tasty 水煮牛肉 at home that is really little spicy or no spicy at all.
🎨Ingredients:
🥩beef: ~0.5lb, buy pre-sliced or cut to thin slices yourself (lion top, ribeye, new york, etc. all good)
🥗vegetables: very flexible, you can use cabbage, bean sprouts, potatoes, or what ever you like. This time I used cucumbers and common beans （芸豆）as I happen to have them.
🧄garlic, ginger, shallot cut to slices.
🌶️chili crush, minced garlic, sichuan pepper (花椒, optional), adjust based on how spicy you like.
🧑🍳Recipe
🥣Rinse beef with cold water a few times to remove blood.
Marinate beef slices with a little bit (1/6 tsb) baking soda, 1tsp soy sauce, 1/4 tsp white pepper, 1/2 tsb corn starch
🧄In a fry wok, add oil, garlic, ginger, shallot, and a few sichuan pepper (optional), cook for 1~2 minutes. Take the pepper out, and add 1tsp bean paste (豆瓣酱或者豆豉酱），cook for another minute or so.
Add ~2tbsp soy sauce, half cup of water, boil for 1minute, then add ~4cups of water.
🥗After the water boil, add the vegetables, cook for a few minutes. 🧂Season with sugar, salt and sesame oil.
🍲Take the vegetables out, put them into the bowl to serve. Also take ~half of the soup out to the serving bowl.
🥩Add 1tsp oil to the beef to separate the pieces. Boil the beef slices, about 2 minutes. Take the beef out to the serving bowl, with a few tbsp of the soup.
🌶️Put the chili crush, minced garlic, sichuan pepper (optional) on top of the beef. Fry 2tbsp of oil to very hot, and pour on the chili, garlic.
🥩Cut the steak to thin slices. I used ribeyes, other types will work too. Rinse with cold water a few times to remove blood.
🥣Put beef in a bowl, add 1/4 tsb baking soda, 1tbsp soy sauce, 1/4 tsp white pepper, 1/2 tsb corn starch, mix well
🍅add oil to a pot, fry the tomatoes to fully cooked, and put it in a bowl to use later.
🧄Fry garlic, ginger, shallot, add a bit of the mushrooms, fry for ~1min
🍲Add a cup of water, let it boil, then add the cooked tomatoes, add ~3cups of water. Let it boil.
🥩Add 1 tbsp oil to the beef, to avoid sticking together. Put the beef slices to the boiling soup, piece by piece. It should only take ~2mins to cook, during this time, add the following:
🥗Add the rest of the mushrooms, and celery (if you use).
🧂Add salt, sugar, 1tbsp rice wine (or whatever you have, or skip), 1tbsp sesame oil.
🥂Enjoy!
A small tip:
If you like to rinse out the blood in the meat more completely, you can use a bit starch to rub the meat and then rinse well.
This song is from a very famous Chinese Poem about Affection. If you are interested in learning what he is saying, here is the original poem and the English translation:
Affection, oh, of what is affection comprised? Where from and how has it got the power like that To impel you to live and die just side by side? Though travelers flying across those terrains wide, What lots of summers and winters you’ve spent in flight, While going thro’ common pleasures, parting plight! No wonder abiding couples are found thereby. Alone, whit the idea: “No point those troubles taking, Laboring ‘gaisnt clouds unending, o’er mountains dark’ning, So lonely, a single shadow alongside casting.”
On the site where Emperor Hanwu crossed the Fen, No more are there his barges and music of his band. Remaining dismal woods by a dim mist screened. “Come back, you spirits!” we call again and again, While lonely Maid Yao crying ‘mid winds and rains. With devotion envied by God, you’re not she same As oriole and swallows mortal, bound to decay. In order that future poets raise their drinks to you, The Mound I build here, a memorial to love so true!
Freshly baked egg tart, smells so good and tastes so good 😘
Bonus, the same dough can be used to make many other cookies, such as Apple Pie, Banana Pie, Sweetheart cake （I like this translation. In Chinese this is called 老婆饼），etc.
🍪Making the dough:
1.5 cups all purpose flour
3tbsp butter, softed
100ml water + 1tsp sugar + 1/3 tsp salt Mix and knead well.
With a rolling pin, roll into a rectangle shape, spread ~1.5tbsb softed butter evenly on top. Fold vertically for 3 layers, then fold horizontally for 3 layers (see pictures). Wrap in food wrapper, let it chill in the fridge for half an hour.
🏃♀️During this time, you can get some exercise and then come back 😉
🍪Take the dough out, gently press it to make it 2x of the size, then roll to a rectangle shape again. This time the shape is more narrow. spread ~1.5tbsb softed butter evenly on top. Fold horizontally for 3 layers (see pictures). Wrap in food wrapper, let it chill in the fridge for half an hour.
💃Go and relax for half an hour 🙂
🍪Take the dough out again. Similar as last step, gently roll it to a rectangle shape. This time wider and thiner.
Now you have two choices: use the dough all for egg tart (making ~18 tarts) or half egg tart half cookies. I chose the later. Cut the dough vertically to 2 piece. Half of it spread butter, and then roll it to a cylinder; the other half also spread with butter, and then fold horizontally for 4 layers. Wrap in food wrapper, let it chill in the fridge for an hour.
🧑🍳During this time, don’t go and relax, we need to prepare the filling:
🍥For the Sweetheart cake:
~half cup well cooked red beans, slightly pressed.
2tbsp sugar
1tbsp butter
2tbsp flour Mix well and let it chill in the fridge.
🥚For the egg tart:
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar (this amount makes a not very sweet taste, you can add more or less based on your preference)
3tbsp startch Mix well.
In a sauce pot, boil 1cup heavy cream, 2/3 cup milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract. Watch the side of the pot, when you see bubbles starting to come out, turn off the heat. Don’t let it boil!
Pour the hot cream into the egg mix, mix well. Transfer the egg mix to a larger measure cup or some other container that is easy to pour the mix to egg tart mold later, using a sieve to remove the lumbs. Let it chill in the fridge.
🍌Prepare the banana filling at the last because of color change:
simply cup a banana to small pieces, and 1tsp sugar.
⌛Baking Time!
Preheat oven to 375f, roast setting (both up and bottom heat).
🥚For the egg tart:
Cut the dough to 9 pieces (for 2.6 inch egg tart molds, adapt according based on your mold size)
Put each piece in a mold. Use your fingers to gentally press and shape it to fit in the mold.
Pour the egg mix to each egg tart mold, fill about 85%
Bake for 25 minutes (may need to adjust based on your oven)
🍥🍌For the pies:
Roll the dough to rectangle shape again.
Cut out ~12 circle shapes
Make 6 sweetheart pie and 6 banana pie.
Brush with egg yolk, spread some sesame seeds.
Bake for 15 minutes (may need to adjust based on your oven)
😍 Time to enjoy!
If you can’t finish, the next day you can simply heat oven to 350f, and back for ~4 minutes.
