Name: Black Pepper Beef
Prep time: 12 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 22 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 500 g sirloin or rump steak, sliced 5 mm thick against the grain; 1 tbsp light soy sauce; 1 tbsp cornflour; 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine; ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda; 2 tbsp oyster sauce; 1 tbsp dark soy sauce; 1 tbsp light soy sauce; 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine; 1 tsp caster sugar; 1 tbsp cornflour; 150 ml water; 1 tbsp black peppercorns, coarsely cracked; 3 tbsp neutral oil; 1 onion, cut into wedges and separated; 1 green pepper, cut into 3 cm pieces; 1 red pepper, cut into 3 cm pieces; 5 garlic cloves, finely chopped; 2 cm fresh ginger, finely chopped; 3 spring onions, cut into 4 cm lengths

Black Pepper Beef

Velveted beef seared hard with peppers and onion in a sauce built on a great deal of coarsely cracked black pepper. Twenty-two minutes, and the pepper is the point rather than a seasoning.

22 min total Serves 4 servings Easy

Don't Make These Mistakes

Everything chopped and the sauce mixed before the pan goes on. The whole cook is under six minutes.

A full tablespoon of pepper. It sounds like a lot and it is the name of the dish.

Highest heat you have, and do not crowd the pan.

Making Black Pepper Beef

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Toss the sliced beef with the soy sauce, cornflour, Shaoxing wine and bicarbonate of soda and leave 10 minutes while you prepare everything else.
Whisk all the sauce ingredients together in a jug and set it by the hob.
Crack the peppercorns coarsely in a mortar or under the base of a heavy pan.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a wok or large frying pan over the highest heat until smoking. Add the beef in a single layer and leave 60 seconds before stirring, then cook 60 seconds more until just browned. Tip onto a plate — it will not be cooked through.
Add the remaining oil, then the onion and peppers, and stir-fry 2 minutes over high heat until blistered at the edges but still crunchy.
Add the garlic, ginger and cracked pepper and stir for 30 seconds, until the pepper smells sharp and fragrant.
Give the sauce a stir and pour it in. It will thicken within 45 seconds.
Return the beef and any juices, add the spring onions, and toss for 30 seconds to coat and finish cooking.

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Why It Works

Velveting — tossing the sliced beef with cornflour, soy and a little bicarbonate of soda — does two things in ten minutes. The alkali raises the surface pH so the proteins hold their water instead of squeezing it out, and the cornflour forms a thin gel that shields the meat from direct heat. That is why restaurant stir-fried beef is tender and the home version is grey and tough. The pepper is cracked rather than ground because coarse pieces give bursts of heat where a fine grind just tastes hot throughout.

After You've Cooked It

Refrigerated for 3 days. Reheat fast in a hot pan; slow reheating toughens the beef.

Swaps and Variations

Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.
An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

What to Serve Alongside

Steamed jasmine rice
Stir-fried greens
A cold lager

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Stir-Fried Water Spinach, Vegan Fried Rice.