Cascading Kitchen Notes
Tomato Beef Chow Mein
Irish Homeplace Version
Timing the defrosting of the beef is the only real challenge. This recipe is a combination of Terrie's memories growing up in San Francisco along with bits and pieces and tweaks from other recipes trying to recreate that ethereal memory. Yum!
In a non-reactive bowl large enough to hold meat:
- 1 lb. sirloin steak sliced paper thin while still partially frozen (or you can buy the pre-sliced sukiyaki beef)
- 2 heaping Tb. corn starch
- 1/3 cup Mirin
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 3 Tbs fresh grated ginger
You can prepare this in the morning and store it in the fridge so it’s ready for dinner time. When you add cornstarch this step is called velveting the meat.
This recipe requires the old adage: everything in its place BEFORE you start cooking; mis-en-place.
Prepare and set aside
1 pt. of real beef stock-reduced to 1 cup so it’s very rich.
Prepare Veggies
- Tomatoes: In the winter I use 1 quart of home canned tomatoes (draining any juice to save for soup making) During tomato season just cut up 1 qt. fresh tomatoes in triangle shapes that are about 1.5 inches across. Leave the skin on.
- 3-4 bell peppers (green ones are best in this dish) cut into triangles about 2 inches across
- 1 large yellow onion cut into triangles about 1.5 inches across
- Pac choy, 1 large bunch. Cut across the stem at an oblique angle for quick cooking in the wok
Option: this is a good place for broccoli too.
I put all the veggies on 1 tray in separate piles so I can stir fry them separately.
Prepare the Meat
Drain the marinade from the meat. Save the marinade…that will be the base of your sauce.
Preparing the noodles
The type of noodle is important. Use fresh or dried chow mein noodles. Not the nasty fried-canned stuff.
Note: chow mein noodles are quite different from ramen noodles which are more springy in texture and contain alkaline elements. Chow mein noodles are non-alkaline…more like an egg noodle. They’re about 1/16th inch thick, like thin spaghetti.
Blanch them in boiling water for 2 min. and drain quickly running cold water over them in a colander to stop the cooking process.
Toss them with 1 Tb sesame seed oil.
Once they’re thoroughly drained you can fry off half the noodles in a heavy cast iron skillet with a generous ½ inch of grapeseed oil (or other high temp cooking oil).
Fry the Noodles
- Heat oil so it shimmers but does not smoke.
- Add half the blanched noodles-spreading evenly over the frying pan.
- Cook for 2 min., turning down the heat if it gets too hot and smokes.
- With a wide spatula turn the “noodle pancake” over and cook 1 more min.
- Remove to a metal tray and keep warm in a preheated 250°oven.
- Cook the second noodle pancake. Remove and keep warm in the oven.
Stir fry
Have a big bowl ready to dump each part of the stir fry into as you go.
In a large, preheated wok add 3 Tbs. grapeseed oil. When it’s hot add: (It's important to get the wok HOT or the result will be more boiled than stir fried)
- Drained meat. Stir very quickly, cooking 1 minute and remove to the bowl.
- Add a splash of water to deglaze the cornstarch and marinade so it does not burn in the cooking ahead. Cook down to a glaze…add more oil if necessary
- Add: green bell peppers, cook 1 min. Remove to the bowl.
- Add: onions, cook 3 min. Remove to the bowl (this makes them less assertive)
- Add: pak choy. Cook about 30 seconds, Remove to the bowl.
- Option: If you’re using broccoli cut into bite size pieces, cook 2 min and remove to the bowl.
Add all the reserved marinade along with the 1 cup of rich beef stock to the wok so it thickens and immediately add all the precooked veggies and meat to warm.
Toss the tomatoes in on top and mix throughout the veggie/meat mixture.
Cook about 1 min. until tomatoes are warmed through.
Serve
Place a noodle pancake on a large platter and top with half the meat/veggie mixture.
Assemble the second noodle pancake and serve.
When serving at the table you can cut into pizza triangles and plate
The noodles in the middle will soak up most of the sauce making them soft and the outer edges will remain crispy.
Yummy.