Beef with Pea Pods

When my Aunt Bing (mom's youngest sister) was working as a domestic helper in Taiwan, her former employers gave her two Chinese Cookbooks. One time, when she decided to work in Hong Kong after working in Taiwan for six years, she stayed here in our house and we got to see the cookbooks. A lot of great dishes from there, but one that the family really loved was the Beef with Pea Pods, which my late father used to cook quite often.

I cannot locate where daddy kept the copy of the recipe (obviously the cookbooks weren't with us as Aunt Bing took it with her), so when mommy brought home some beef, I remembered this dish and tried to cook it the best way I could. I didn't have the exact recipe, but I did have the memory of it.


Beef with Pea Pods
{serves 3}

Ingredients:

• 250 grams beef, sliced into thin strips
• 100 grams snow peas (chicharo)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  
• 1 medium onion, sliced thinly
  
• 3 - 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/8 teaspoons ginger, finely minced (optional)
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
  
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
• a pinch of salt
  
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved in 1 teaspoon water
  

Directions for Cooking:

• Sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper into the beef strips, mix, and set aside for a while.
• Heat up the pan and stir fry the beef. When halfly done, set the beef aside and saute the garlic, onion and ginger in the same pan. Add water.
  
• Put back the beef in the pan and season it with oyster sauce, sugar, and soy sauce. Simmer for a while.
  
• After about 10 minutes (or when the beef is cooked), add the snow peas. Mix, adjust the taste if you need to, then add the cornstarch slurry.
• Mix a little and turn off heat when the sauce gets a little thick. Serve with steaming hot rice.

The dish I made didn't look that good because I somehow overcooked the snow peas. Well, the snow peas weren't as fresh when I bought it (it was starting to wilt), so it was already fragile when I cooked it. :) If you didn't like a heavy sauce for this, you can lessen the amount of cornstarch and water. Obviously, you can adjust the recipe according to your preference. :)




We had some uncut beef left in the fridge... and the next day, I saw some really cheap cauliflower at the market, so I bought it and cooked the dish again, and added some sliced carrots and green beans. Still the same process, but different veggies.

Between the two, I preferred the last one more because it had more veggies (more to eat).

*** Jenn ***

ps - I saw two nice food memes: Foodie Friday and Fat Camp Friday, and both memes revolve around recipes, so I decided to change my posting schedule... I am now sharing recipes on Fridays, and will share the thematic foods on Sundays.