Sichuan crispy beef
Souped Up Recipes · ♥ 11.2K likes · 356.5K views · 10 min video
Read about brisket in the BrightCulinary Book
Timestamp
Ingredients
Method
Techniques
- 1½ lb beef brisket
Cut the beef at a small angle to the fibre direction into four large pieces.
Choosing and cutting the beef
Put the beef in a clean pot with water, the cooking wine, ginger slices and knotted spring onion, cover and bring to a boil.
- water
- 2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
- ginger
- 2 pieces spring onion
Skim the blood crumbs with a sieve, turn the heat to low and cook 15 minutes.
- hot dried chilies
- 2 pieces bay leaves
- 1 whole star anise
- 1 stick cinnamon
- ¼ tsp fennel seeds
- ½ tsp white peppercorn
- 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorn
- ½ whole black cardamom
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
Blend the dried chilies, bay leaves, star anise, cinnamon, fennel seeds, white peppercorn, Sichuan peppercorn, black cardamom and half the cumin seeds together.
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1½ tbsp salt
- 1½ tbsp sugar
Tip the blend into a bowl and stir in the sesame seeds, the reserved whole cumin seeds, the salt and the sugar.
Check the beef: cooked through but still tough enough to need force to push a chopstick in. Take it out and rinse under running water to cool.
Slice the beef into pieces an eighth of an inch thick, still at an angle to the fibre, then cut into strips and drain in a sieve.
- 1 cup oil
- green onion
- 6 slices ginger
- ½ whole onion
- 5 cloves garlic
Put a cup of oil in a large wok with the green onion, ginger, sliced onion and crushed garlic while the oil is still cold, and keep the flame medium low so the aromatics season the oil.
Flavouring the frying oil with aromatics
Fry the aromatics 5 to 6 minutes until slightly crusty and golden, stirring so nothing burns, then remove and discard every piece.
Heat the oil to 370F and hold it there. Add the well drained beef and keep flipping so it cooks evenly.
The beef is boiled first because raw strips stick together in the oil and their moisture makes it splash.
Fry 5 to 6 minutes in total until the beef is brown outside, like beef jerky, then turn off the heat and lift it out.
- ¼ cup oil
Pour off the oil to reuse, leaving about a quarter cup in the wok.
Tossing the beef with the spice mix
- ¼ cup water
Return the beef with the spice mix, added in batches to control the heat, and pour in a quarter cup of water.
Stir over medium to low heat about 3 minutes until the water is gone, without burning the spices. Taste and add the rest of the spice mix.
Chill in the fridge three hours until cold; the dish tastes better cold and the flavours infuse as it cools.
Chilling for three hours