Serves 4 as part of a multi dish sharing meal
I had a dish similar to this made with Yak meat and Tibetan celery in a teashop close to the Tibetan boarder. Tibetan celery is more like mild lovage than the celery we get, the dish was so good I had to grow some lovage. Go sparing on western lovage though, after a shocking attempt I discovered its best just to use a few leaves instead of the celery leaves.
Ingredients
Marinade
- 450 grams | 1 lb very thinly sliced steak
- 1 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce.
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon ground timur or Sichuan pepper
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon rice or cider vinegar
For cooking
- 4 spring onions
- 100 grams | 3 ½ oz celery sticks, sliced into bite sized pieces
- 2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
- 1 inch ginger (approximately 10 grams), sliced and then cut the slices into small matchsticks
- 1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 240 ml | 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon cornflower
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- celery or lovage leaves, finely shredded
Method
Cover the steak slices with the bicarbonate of soda and massage to cover all the beef, leave the soda to do its job for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes rinse the beef well and dry on some paper towel. Place steak with the light and dark soy sauce timur, brown sugar and vinegar into a bowl and mix well so the steak is covered with all the ingredients set aside to marinade for 20 minutes.
Heat the oil to very hot sear the steak slices so they are just cooked through and caramelising in places. Remove them from the oil and set them aside for later, this is best done in 3 to 4 small batches, so you don’t overcrowd the pan. Once the steak has all been seared, add the celery garlic and ginger to the pan with 100 mil of the water and cook on high until the celery just loses its rawness, turn the heat down slightly. Add 2 tablespoons soy sauce with the chilli and sliced spring onions, stir briefly. Mix the cornflower with the remaining If you have a lot of liquid at this stage add a little of the cornflower water mixture to thicken the sauce if you feel you need more sauce add the rest of the water with more of the cornflower mixture. Return the beef to the pan with the celery leaves and stir well so the beef is well heated through and covered in the sauce check for seasoning the dishes ready to serve straight away.
Best served with plain boiled rice, if this is part of a multi dish meal for 4 I suggest 2-3 dishes and the rice.