Chinese Beef Stir Fry
Stir fries are my go-to for those nights when I can’t deal with more than the bare minimum effort for dinner. I know I can always knock up a stir fry using whatever greens I have left in my fridge. Even if I only have green beans and an onion (and some protein!). As long as I have a tasty sauce, I’m one happy gal! So I have a secret weapon for super fast midweek meals – a homemade all purpose stir fry sauce. I call him Charlie. As in – Charlie Brown, because it’s a brown sauce. Ha ha ha. Don’t kill yourself laughing at my lack of originality! Charlie is my secret weapon because he takes minutes to make and lasts in the fridge for weeks and weeks. He is similar to the sauce of many Chinese stir fries, but not an exact replica of any. Which means he is a great base to use for a seemingly endless array of Chinese dishes with the addition of a few extra flavourings. And he’s real. He tastes like a real Chinese stir fry sauce, with proper depth of flavour. Say hi to Charlie! That’s him on the bottom right photo. Looks unimpressive, doesn’t he? No hint of the power within! 🙂
The beauty of Charlie is that he will reside in your fridge for weeks, then when you need him, he’s always ready to go. Just give him a good shake, pour him in your stir fry and add water. He’s already got cornstarch/cornflour in him so he turns into a glorious thick sauce that coats your stir fry beautifully. It’s been over a year since I last shared a recipe using Charlie. The reason I thought of this is because Super Food Ideas (Australia’s #1 food magazine!) asked me to do a feature with a series of recipes using Charlie. You will be amazed what you can make with him! Not just stir fries – soups, sauces, noodle stir fries and even using him as a marinade. So I spent last week developing recipes for the Super Food Ideas feature (which comes out in early February – I’ll share more about that when the issue is released!). And I had a handful of ingredients leftover which is why I decided to share this stir fry recipe today. If you want more ideas for how to use Charlie, you can have a look at this post – 10 Classic Chinese Dishes, 1 Amazing Sauce, where I share 10 more Chinese dishes (all on one page!) that you can make using Charlie. For now, I present to you this classic Beef Stir Fry made using Charlie. 🙂 BUT I’ve also provided the ingredients to make the sauce from scratch too. Enjoy! – Nagi x
That’s right. Your cheerful local Chinese restaurant is using economical stewing beef to make stir fries with ultra tender strips of beef by tenderising it! Find out how to use this simple, highly effective method: How to Tenderise Beef (the Chinese way). This is optional only, when wanting to make stir fries with economical beef or you simply want extra tender beef, Chinese restaurant style! Nutrition per serving, excluding rice. You can reduce the calories by 80 calories by using a non stick skillet and halving the oil.
