Explore

“The Secret to Tender Beef: A Simple Step to Transform Your Stir-Fry”

When stir-frying beef, a common pitfall is ending up with tough, chewy meat that detracts from the dish. The secret to overcoming this issue lies in a few simple techniques that guarantee tender and juicy beef, elevating your culinary creations to new heights.

Administrator

19 July, 2024

Beef is an excellent source of protein and provides a plethora of essential vitamins and minerals, notably iron and zinc. Beef contains higher levels of iron compared to chicken and fish. Incorporating beef into your diet offers several notable health benefits, including:

Maintaining muscle mass

Improving exercise performance

Preventing anemia

Before stir-frying beef, marinate it with a little oil to prevent toughness

Prior to stir-frying beef, it is advisable to take an extra step to prevent the meat from becoming tough. While beef is commonly used for steaks or stews in Western cuisine, Vietnamese cuisine offers a variety of preparation methods, such as steaming, blanching, rolling, stir-frying, and hot pot. Among these, stir-fried beef is a popular choice, including stir-fries with heavenly bamboo, bamboo shoots, potatoes and tomatoes, a variety of vegetables, mushrooms, and gourd.

The type of beef typically used for stir-frying is locally sourced, offering a sweet and fragrant flavor, although it may be slightly tougher than imported beef specifically intended for grilling. To prevent stir-fried beef from becoming tough and dry, pay close attention to the preparation process. Before stir-frying, marinate the beef with a small amount of cooking oil, ensuring that the oil coats each piece evenly. Allowing the beef to absorb the oil prior to cooking will result in a more tender dish.

Take this extra step before stir-frying beef to prevent toughness.

Steps to stir-fry tender and delicious beef

In addition to preparation, the choice of ingredients is equally important. For a successful stir-fry, opt for tenderloin, fillet, or rump cuts. When purchasing beef, select a piece with a moderate bright red color, neither too pale nor too dark; the fat, if present, should be light yellow or slightly firm.

To assess its freshness, touch the meat; if it quickly returns to its original state, remains moist, and does not feel slimy or sticky, it is fresh.

Once you’ve purchased your beef, follow these steps to prepare it:

Beef preparation

To eliminate the beef’s odor, crush and mince a small amount of ginger, then place it in a bowl with some salt crystals and water. Stir to dissolve the salt, and then soak the beef pieces in this mixture for a few minutes. Ginger and salt will effectively clean, disinfect, and remove the unpleasant smell. After soaking, remove the meat and rinse it with clean water. Use paper towels to pat the surface of the meat dry.

To eliminate the beef’s odor, crush and mince ginger, then mix it with salt and water.

Marinating the beef

To enhance the flavor and tenderness of the beef, marinate it with seasonings such as minced garlic, ginger, pepper, seasoning powder, or soy sauce before cooking. To prevent dryness, include a small amount of cooking oil in the marinade.

Stir-frying the beef

For an appealing and tasty stir-fry, beef is typically cooked alongside various vegetables. It is recommended to stir-fry each ingredient separately until just cooked and then combine them afterward.

Many people tend to add beef to a hot oiled pan immediately, but experienced home cooks suggest that this may cause the meat to shrink, stick together, and burn due to the high temperature. To avoid this, place the beef in the pan before it gets hot, use a high flame, and stir continuously.

Start by stir-frying the vegetables first and set them aside on a plate. Then, add the beef to the pan and stir-fry quickly until it is just cooked. Return the vegetables to the pan, mix well, and adjust the seasoning to taste before turning off the heat.