Recipe: Black Pepper Beef

I absolutely love gravies. I think it's a Southeast Asian thing. In Malaysia, if you go to a roadside mamak stall, you can order your rice or roti "banjir" (translation: flooded) with gravy or sauce. I never learn. Just yesterday I took one spoon too many of the gravy from the claypot tofu dish we had at a restaurant in Petaling Street, which was essentially MSG with a couple of dashes of pepper. I spent the rest of the night drinking copious amounts of water just to neutralise the effect.


Black pepper beef is popular stir-fried dish in Malaysia. The trickiest thing about beef is in the slicing. You want to make sure that you slice the beef across the grain into wafer thin slices. Otherwise, it's pretty straightforward.


Ingredients:
250 g of beef fillet, sliced
1 small red onion, sliced into quarters
1/4 head cauliflower, separated into florets
1/2 carrot, cut into desired shapes
3 dried mushrooms, soaked until soft and sliced
1/4 red or green capsicum, cubed
2 stalks spring onions, cut into 3-4 cm pieces
2 slices young ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
2 tbsps. vegetable oil
About 2-3 tbsp of water


Marinade:

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

A few dashes Maggi seasoning

1 tsp Shao Xing or Chinese rice wine

2 tbsp water

1 tsp corn flour

Sesame oil

Sauce:

1 tsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp Premium oyster sauce

1/2 tsp thick soy sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp pepper

100ml fresh chicken stock or water

1 tsp corn flour 

Marinade beef for about 1 hour. Just before stir-frying, add a couple of dashes of sesame oil and mix thoroughly. 

Heat oil in wok on high. When hot, add in beef, stir around for a few minutes until semi-cooked and dish up. Add ginger, garlic and stir fry until fragrant. Add in onion, cauliflower, mushrooms, carrot and capsicum, sprinkle in water. Lower heat, cover and simmer for a few minutes until vegetables are tender. Add in sauce ingredients, beef and spring onions and mix well.  Add freshly cracked black pepper to taste. When the mixture comes to boil, turn off heat and serve immediately.