Beef with black bean sauce

Our masterchef friend also taught us how to stir fry beef with black bean sauce. The salty fermented soy beans used for flavouring the dish is not the same as Mexican black beans. These beans need to be rinsed first so as to make it palatable yet flavoursome. This dish originated in south China.

Our masterchef recommended using chuck tender as there is only one main tendon running through and could easily be removed. Slice beef thinly about 2 mm thick and wide enough for some chewy bite.

The other ingredients are onions, bell peppers, fresh button mushroom, carrot and zucchini.

Firstly, run the beef fillet briefly through mildly boiling oil till half cooked.

Fry garlic and black bean. Then fry the vegetables in order of time required for cooking - onions and carrots first ....

Return the beef to the wok with the vegetables. Add cornstarch solution and more seasoning sauces if required.

Cover the wok for 5 seconds so that the sauce could steep into the beef and vegetables. Remove from heat, plate and serve.

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Chef Demonstration of Sang Choy Bao

I had the privilege to witness the cooking from a hotel masterchef who is trained in international, western and asian cuisines during a recent social event I helped to organise.

Pronounced Sang Choy Bao in Cantonese, shen cai bao in hanyu pinyin and written 生菜包. It means lettuce wraps.

The main ingredients are : waterchestnut, button mushroom, meat (diced chicken or minced pork),

Seasoning sauces : a little of dark soy sauce, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce and sugar, adjusted to taste.

Of course, most run-of-the mill restaurants give you lots of chopped brown onions and carrots as these are cheap ingredients. It's up to you how much goodies you would like to add to whip up this healthy and delicious all time favourite.

Stir fry the ingredients in a medium high pan or wok quickly. Then stir through the sauces.

Prepare lettuce cups by washing lettuce and cutting them into bite size. Scoop the savoury filling into the lettuce cups and serve promptly.

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