CRISPY CHILLI BEEF

I often wonder what the term‘modern Chinese cuisine’actually means.Does presenting food in upmarket crockery make it modern？Definitely not in my opinion.This dish epitomizes for me what I understand modern Chinese cuisine to involve:looking closely at traditional recipes，identifying possible flaws in the dish and adapting the recipe accordingly to satisfy a contemporary clientele.The traditional method for this dish involves freezing the beef into a block，then cutting it into batons and washing it under cold running water until all the blood and moisture is flushed out.The batons are then battered and deep-fried until brittle before being coated with a neon-orange sauce.I never really liked the hard，dry texture of the old standard，so in the restaurant we take several precautions to ensure that our end result is batons of beef that remain juicy encased withina batter that is amazingly light and in a sauce that is more in the way of a natural caramel.

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

300g beef rump

1 quantity of Beef Marinade

vegetable oil，for deep-frying

cornflour，for coating

pinch of chilli flakes or to taste

pinch of Five-spice Salt

large pinch of toasted sesame seeds

20g Pickled Carrot

viola flowers，to garnish（optional）

For the sauce

250g sugar

400ml water

75ml Chinese red vinegar

75ml malt vinegar

1 star anise

For the batter

250g plain flour

50g tapioca flour

12 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

sparkling mineral water，chilled，for mixing

1.Place the beef in the freezer for around 112 hours until it is about 70 per cent frozen.

2.Using a sharp knife，cut the partially frozen beef into 7cm × 5mm batons.

3.Add the beef batons to the marinade in a dish，cover and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

4.Meanwhile，for the sauce，combine all the ingredients in a pan and cook until the mixture has reduced to the consistency of honey.

5.For the batter，combine the dry ingredients in a bowl，then whisk in enough sparkling water until you have a light batter.

6. Once the marinating time is up, heat the oil for deep-frying in a deep-fat fryerto 180℃.

7. Remove the beef batons from the marinade, coat them in cornflour and plunge them individually into the batter before deep-frying until crispy-the fried batter coating should have minute holes throughout instead of being a solid shell. Remove from the oil and drain on kitchen paper.

8. Add the deep-fried beef batons to the sauce, season with the chilli flakes and Five-spice Salt and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

9. Top with the Pickled Carrots, garnish with viola flowers, if you like, and serve immediately.

hancheng

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