Black Pepper Beef

I LOVE black pepper anything. And I am glad that I am finally able to cook a good black pepper dish without using oyster sauce. Not that I have anything against it in taste. I love the flavour and the richness and the sweetness that it brings to a dish but unfortunately I have heard that it contains anything but oysters.

So to compensate I used a combination of honey and a dark, thick soy sauce. It worked and everyone was slappy happy although not the violent kind.

But it was difficult to get a good picture though. Black and dark dishes like this and rendang just don't photograph well. At least that was what I experienced. I must have taken about fifty frames and most of them were bad. But thank god for digitals. Thank god for delete too. And thank god for one decent one. Or two.

Black Pepper Beef

500 gm beef fillet, sliced thinly

marinate for beef :

2 teaspn light soy sauce
1 teaspn sugar
1 teaspn cornflour
1/2 teaspn bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspn salt
1 egg ( white only if preferred)

3 cloves garlic crushed to a paste
About 4 tablespn dark soy sauce
1-2 tablespn honey
1-2 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cornflour + 1 tablespoon water, mixed
some water

Marinate the beef for at least 30 minutes. Coat the beef with the marinate well by using your fingers so that every slice is well coated.

Heat 3 or 4 tablespoon spf oil in a small wok. Fry the beef pieces in three batches until browned but half cooked through. Drain and keep aside.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a larger pan. Saute the garlic paste for a few seconds. Add the soy sauce, honey, and some water, perhaps about 1/2 a cup of water. Stir. Add ground black pepper and then beef slices all at once. Put heat on high and mix well until beef slices are coated with the sauce. Add salt to taste if necessary (I did not add salt) and if you would like more sauce just add a little more water. When the beef is about done maybe three ot five minutes add the cornflour mixture to thicken the sauce. Sprinkle a little black pepper on top if you like.

Serve with white rice or noodles.



TIP : Bicarbonate of soda tenderizes the meat. Check this out for some opinions on tenderizing meat and this for some expert opinion on the effects of marinated meat on health.

TIP : The egg that was used as part of the marinade seemed to give the beef a tender quality too. As well as adding moistness to it.