Spicy Szechuan Beef

I love the medley of flavours, colours, and textures of this simple stir-fry. The sweetness of the red pepper, crunchiness of the celery, and the lovely marinated tender beef, comes together and leaves you with a slight kick of good spicy numbness at the end with the Szechuan peppercorn. This dish beautifully compliments steamed fragrant Jasmine rice, and a light soup for a complete meal. This is more of a dry fried recipe, so there isn’t much sauce. But of course feel free to change it if you like something a little more saucy. 🙂

Marinate the beef with corn flour, soy, shaoxing wine, and white pepper.

Heat pan on med high, and add peanut and sesame oil when pan is hot.
Then saute chilli, garlic, ginger, and szechuan peppercorn for a minute.

Add beef and stir fry until beef is almost cooked.

Add celery, carrot, and red pepper.
Stir fry for a minute.

Add spicy bean paste (doubanjiang), sugar, and a splash of water.
Stir fry until sauce is mixed through.
Serve garnished with some chopped spring onions.

Ingredients (Serves 3-4 as a side)

• 230g beef strips
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine / chinese cooking wine
• White pepper to taste
• 1/2 red pepper, cut into strips
• 1 stalk celery, cut into bias slices
• 1 small carrot, julienne
• 2 dried chilli, rehydrated in hot water for 5-10 mins, then sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 slices of old ginger
• 1 tsp Szechuan peppercorn
• 1 tbsp doubanjian / Spicy bean paste
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• Splash of water

Bon appetit!