Hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to Chinese comfort food classics with a shot at a sweet and savory teriyaki variation of a Chinese black pepper steak stir fry, inspired by Hong Kong Cafe here in San Leandro, California. For those not familiar, black pepper steak, (or sometimes simply pepper steak) is a fairly common dish found in American Chinese cuisine, more typically featuring a velveted piece of flank steak that has been seared and stir fried with bell peppers, veggies, and of course, black pepper. Most typically the steak in this dish would be sliced into long, thin strips to help account for the fact that flank steak is a pretty tough and chewy cut, so the thinner slice allows for more cuts against the grain, yielding a more tender piece of beef.
As you may notice though, the version that we are attempting today is instead cut into cubes, which presents the inherent challenge of, how do we stir fry a cube of flank steak without turning it into a chewy, inedible mess? And the answer of course is, velveting, which we'll dive into in a moment. Finally to round this off, we'll also be replicating the teriyaki sauce that the Hong Kong Cafe version makes use of in their version, which means we'll once again be revisiting my favorite sweet and savory sauce of all time, the sweet chili teriyaki sauce. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
1lb flank steak
1 red bell pepper
8-10 button mushrooms
1/2 medium white onion
crushed black pepper
peanut oil
INGREDIENTS (teriyaki sauce)
4 cloves garlic
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
corn starch slurry (2 tbsp corn starch dissolved in water)
INGREDIENTS (marinade)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp crushed black pepper
baking soda slurry (1 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1/2 cup water)
PREP
CUBE the flank steak, then combine with the baking soda slurry and marinate for 15 minutes
DRAIN the baking soda slurry from the steak, then combine with remaining marinade ingredients and let marinate for an additional 15 minutes
CRUSH and mince 8 cloves garlic, then set aside 4 cloves, and add the remaining 4 to a mixing bowl
MINCE 2 inches ginger, then set aside 1 inch, and add the remainder to a mixing bowl
COMBINE all remaining teriyaki sauce ingredients with the the garlic and ginger except the corn starch slurry, then set aside
LARGE DICE the bell pepper, set aside
LARGE DICE the onion, set aside
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a wok over medium heat, then the teriyaki sauce and let simmer for 2-3 minutes until slightly reduced to desired flavor
ADD the corn starch slurry and mix until a thickened sauce forms, then remove
REHEAT the wok over medium heat, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the steak to the wok and sear for 2 minutes undisturbed before raising the heat to high and tossing with the wok tilted downward for wok hei
SHIFT the steak to one side of the wok, then add the remaining garlic and ginger and saute for 15 seconds until fragrant
ADD the red bell pepper and saute for an additional 1-2 minutes
ADD the onion and mushroom, then saute for an additional 1-2 minutes
ADD the teriyaki sauce back to the wok and toss to combine
FINISH with crushed black pepper to taste