Crispy beef and chilli stir fry

My version of crispy Chinese beef, that’s quicker and cheaper than a trip to the takeaway.

Preparation Time:  Around 10 minutes

Cooking time:  Around 15 minutes

This takes inspiration from one of my favourite dishes from the Chinese takeaway, but I’ve adapted it into a quick and relatively easy stir-fry dish that is perfect for when time is short.  As ever, you can up the chilli content if you want a spicier stir-fry (although I’d be careful not to overpower the dish with chilli), or you can cut down or leave the chilli out altogether if you prefer, and it works just as well.

Ingredients (serves 2):

• Egg noodles – (I use Sharwood’s dried egg noodles and use 2 blocks)
• Rump steak – 300g, trimmed, then sliced into thin strips
• Cornflour – 3 tbsp.
• Garlic – 2 gloves, sliced
• Fresh ginger – 1 tbsp., finely chopped
• Red chilli – 1 (or to taste), finely chopped
• Sugar snap peas – 250g
• Spring onions – 1 bunch, sliced on the diagonal into 1 inch pieces
• Soy sauce – 4 tbsp.
• Brown sugar – 2 tbsp.
• Lime juice – from 2 limes

Method:

1. The dried egg noodles I use take 4 minutes to cook in boiling water, so my timings are based on that, but you can adapt to whatever noodles (or rice) that you want to use.  I start by putting a pan of water on to boil, and by heating the deep fat fryer, while I prepare the other ingredients;
2. Toss the beef strips in the cornflour (I put them both in a food-bag to do this), then fry the coated beef strips in the deep fat fryer.  (If you don’t have a deep fat fryer, you can fry them in about 5cm of oil in a pan).  They should take about 5 minutes, and you want to take them out when they’re dark and crispy.  Drain the beef onto a tray lined with kitchen roll (to soak up the excess oil) and keep warm;
3. While the beef is frying, heat a little oil in a wok and fry the garlic, ginger and chilli for 1-2 minutes until fragrant;
4. Add the sugar snap peas to the wok, and stir fry for about 5 minutes.  (When the sugar snaps have been on for about 2-3 minutes, it should be time to drain the beef and add the dried noodles to the boiling water);
5. Once the sugar snaps have been stir frying for about 5 minutes, add the spring onions to the wok and mix together.  Then add the soy sauce, sugar and lime juice, and stir fry for another 2 minutes;
6. Drain the noodles when they are ready, then add them to the wok and mix well to ensure the noodles are all coated in the cooking sauce.  Finally, add the crispy beef strips to the wok and toss together before serving into bowls.

Crispy beef and chilli stir fry