Stir Fry Beef with Celery
Ganbian (干煸) is a cooking technique translated as dry-stir fry; it means stir-frying the ingredients over medium or low heat until nicely charred to concentrate the flavor. To prevent the meat from getting chewy, a bit of baking soda in the marinade is necessary. The beef tastes like a tender piece of jerky, spicy and numbing, with a bit of nuttiness - so delicious. You can serve it as a side dish. We also like to eat it as a beer snack.
- Prep time
- 14 min
- Cook time
- 31 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
- 450 g 1 lb of beef (Sirloin, flank steak, beef chuck)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/3 tsp baking soda
- 1/5 tsp 5 spice powder
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 1 clove garlic (grated)
- 3-4 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp Sichuan Dou ban Jiang
- 2 tbsp shredded ginger
- 4 clove garlic (sliced thinly)
- 6-10 dried red chilies (cut open and seeded)
- 200 g 7 oz of celery
- 2-3 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
- 2 scallions (cut into 2-inch long stalks)
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
- 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorn powder or to taste
Instructions
- 1
Cut the beef into 1/4 inch thick strips. Then marinate with salt, 5-spice powder, sugar, baking powder, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, garlic, and ginger. Set it aside.
- 2
Cut the celery into 2.5 inches long, 1/4 inch thick sticks. Preferably use Chinese celery for a stronger fragrance.
- 3
Heat your wok over high heat until smoking hot. Then add a generous amount of oil and swirl it around.
- 4
Add the beef strips and spread them out. Pan fry for 20 seconds and flip to pan-fry the other side. Then stir the beef over medium heat for about 5 minutes until the beef is nicely charred.
- 5
Push the beef to the side. Add a tbsp of Sichuan Dou Ban Jiang and stir on low heat until the oil becomes bright red.
- 6
Add the ginger strips, garlic slices, seeded dried red chilies, and celery stalks. Stir for a couple of minutes. Add the Chinese cooking wine from the side of the wok to deglaze the bottom.
- 7
Add the scallion, toasted sesame seeds, and Sichuan peppercorn powder. Stir thoroughly and serve with white rice.