hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to classic Chinese comfort food dishes with a shot at a Cantonese crispy beef chow mein made using super thin Hong Kong style fresh egg noodles. A quick review for those not familiar, a traditional chow mein as we all know and love it by definition must include some form of fry to the noodle (chow translating to "fry"), not unlike how we made our Panda Express chow mein, Hot and Spicy chow mein, Tomato Beef chow mein, and a few others. If it does not include a fry to the noodles, then it would otherwise be a lo mein, which is a different dish all together.
So! To accomplish this for our version today, we're going to be using a super thin Hong Kong style noodles made with a high content of egg, allowing for the noodle to puff up and fry very nicely in the wok. Bay Area locals may recognize this as the same type of noodle that we use for our crispy garlic noodles at the Woo Can Cook pop up. Finally to go along with all of this, we'll also be assembling a crispy beef made using flank steak and a pinch of baking soda in a technique known as velveting, to help us tenderize what would otherwise be a pretty tough cut of meat without some fun food science trickery. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) fine minced ginger
4 oz baby bok choy
1/2 medium white onion
1/2 bell pepper
1 lb flank steak
1 lb Hong Kong egg noodles
baking soda slurry (1/2 tsp baking soda dissolved in water)
corn starch slurry (2 tbsp corn starch dissolved in water)
peanut oil
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tbsp doubanjiang
1 tbsp black vinegar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
INGREDIENTS (marinade)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp corn starch
PREP
CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside
FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside
SLICE the bok choy into strips, set aside
SLICE the bell pepper into strips, set aside
LARGE DICE the onion, set aside
SLICE the flank steak against the grain into strips, then combine with baking soda slurry for 15 minutes
RINSE off the steak, then combine with all marinade ingredients and let marinate for 20 minutes
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
ON THE STOVE
BOIL 1 cup water in a wok, then add a steam basket and steam the noodles for 5 minutes
REMOVE the water, then reheat the wok over medium heat and add 1 cup peanut oil and long yao
ADD the noodles to the wok and fry for 2-3 minutes until crisp, then remove
REHEAT the wok over medium heat, add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the flank steak 20 pieces at a time and sear for 2 minutes undisturbed before tossing with the wok tilted downward for wok hei
REMOVE the steak, then reheat the wok as hot as possible, add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the garlic and ginger and saute for 15 seconds until fragrant
ADD the bell pepper and onion and toss to combine for 1 minute
ADD the bok choy and toss to combine for 2-3 minutes
ADD the beef back to the wok, followed by the sauce element plus 1/4 cup water
ADD the corn starch slurry and toss until a thick sauce forms
SERVE over crispy noodles