What’s up, everyone?
Today, we’re making
Beef Chow Fun with Gravy,
a saucy version of our classic Beef Chow Fun,
satisfying all of your cravings for chewy rice noodles
covered in luscious gravy.
First, my dad will show you
how a Chinese chef prepares the beef for max tenderness.
I'm using about 10 oz of steak.
It stir-fries to be rather tender.
We'll start by cutting the beef.
When you cut the beef,
don't cut along the grain.
Do you see the lines of the grain?
Don't cut along those lines, or your beef will be tough.
What you have to do is cut a thick piece here.
Then cut across the grain.
Then your beef won't be tough!
When you look at the grain,
you’re seeing which way the muscle fibers are running.
You want to cut those fibers short,
because if you don’t cut those fibers with your knife now,
then your teeth will be working overtime
to cut them later when you’re chewing.
That’s what we mean by meat being tough.
When you put the meat on your cutting board,
align those grain lines to run from left to right,
and set your knife perpendicular to those lines
to cut your slices for stir-fry.
On your completed slice,
you shouldn’t see any long grain lines.
Is that frozen?
Yes, it's frozen.
I just took this out of the freezer not long ago
to make it easier to cut.
If it's thawed, you can definitely still cut it.
We’ll cut the beef into roughly 1/4 inch slices.
After cutting it,
place it in a bowl.
Pour some water in.
This helps it thaw faster
and also helps get rid of that red myoglobin.
This helps it thaw out faster.
With steak, it's fine if the slices are a little thicker.
Set it aside for now.
We’ll let the beef soak
while we continue with the next ingredient.
1/2 oz of fermented black beans is enough.
We're also going to use oyster sauce and light soy sauce,
so we don't need too much.
Soak the beans in water.
Sometimes the beans have sand or grit, so I like to wash them.
After rinsing the fermented black beans,
we’ll add some water and set them aside to soak.
Okay, now let them soak.
Let's cut the onion and bell pepper.
We only need half a bell pepper.
We’ll use about a quarter each of a red and green bell pepper.
Only half the onion as well.
We’ll cut the onion roughly into triangular pieces.
Cut into triangles.
Then we’ll make sure each piece is separate with our hands.
Cut the bell peppers into triangles as well.
Triangles, see?
We’ll change the angle of our knife each time
to create triangular pieces of bell pepper.
3 cloves of garlic.
We’ll smash, peel, and mince 3 cloves of garlic.
Mince them.
Mince the ginger as well.
We’ll cut the ginger first into thin slices.
Then lay them down to cut into strips.
Then rotate to mince.
The beef has soaked enough now.
Now we can drain the water from the beef.
Press the water out.
Make sure to squeeze out the water,
so it can absorb the marinade well.
Let's marinate the beef.
For the marinade, we’ll combine a 1/4 tsp of salt,
a 1/2 tsp of sugar, a 1/2 tsp of white pepper,
1 tsp of light soy sauce, a 1/2 tsp of dark soy sauce,
1 tbsp of oyster sauce, 1.5 tsp of cornstarch, and 2 tbsp of water.
If I were using flank steak,
I'd also add baking soda.
We don't need that for steak, though.
Why not?
Because steak is naturally more tender.
Mix it all up, then add the beef.
Mix it up.
It's okay to take more time mixing it,
because then it can absorb the marinade better.
Look.
It looks great!
It's absorbed all the marinade.
We’ll set aside the beef to marinate
and revisit our fermented black beans.
The fermented black beans are ready.
They're soft now.
We’ll drain the water from the black beans.
Then do another quick rinse for good measure.
After they've softened,
use your hands and crush the fermented black beans.
Like this.
Use your fingers to press down on them.
You can also use a spoon instead.
Use the spoon to crush them like this.
Look, they're crushed now.
Make sure all the beans are crushed
so they can release their flavor into the sauce later.
Once the consistency of the beans is like a rough paste,
we can set it aside
and my dad will show you
how to prepare the noodles before cooking them.
We have to loosen the rice noodles.
Turn the cutting board over, to where it's dry.
It's easier to loosen the noodles on a dry surface.
Watch this.
We have about 1 lb of chow fun, flat rice noodles.
This is store-bought.
When loosening up the rice noodles, make sure your hands are dry.
Massage the noodles.
Look how beautiful and elastic the noodles are.
Do you have to get fresh noodles?
Fresh noodles make for a better stir-fry.
Do you have to cook it on the same day that you buy it?
Yes, because they're better fresh!
We’ll continue massaging and separating the noodles with our hands.
Why do you have to loosen them?
If you don't loosen them now, they won't separate when you stir-fry them.
They'll be clumpy.
Back in the day,
Chinese restaurants wouldn't even refrigerate their rice noodles.
Refrigerated rice noodles don't cook as well.
They'd buy it in the morning and sell it that day,
but you can't do that in the US
due to food hygiene practices.
"How do you prep the chow fun
if it's been refrigerated and is no longer soft?"
Loosen it before you refrigerate it.
And remember to take it out
when you're going to stir-fry it,
microwave it first to soften before you stir-fry it.
How do you know if it's not fresh?
If it's stiff.
Actually, these aren't really fresh rice noodles.
It's hardened.
But it's usable!
What if you absolutely cannot find fresh noodles,
can you buy dry noodles and soak them?
Yes, you can.
Buy dry noodles and soak them in warm water until they're soft.
That's okay too.
Soak to soften them, and cover them to steam them.
Cantonese people split Beef Chow Fun dishes
into two categories—
"sap caau ngau ho" and "gon caau ngau ho"
literally “wet beef chow fun” and “dry beef chow fun”.
Here’s the major difference:
Although both recipes call for “ho fun”,
named after the town of Shahe in Guangzhou
where these famous flat rice noodles were first created…
Dry Beef Chow Fun emphasizes
the fragrance of the stir-fried ingredients.
Whereas Wet Beef Chow Fun highlights
the heartwarming sauce that is served atop the noodles.
There are several varieties of Wet Beef Chow Fun.
This specific recipe is called Si Ziu Ngau Ho
because the signature flavor involves dau si,
or fermented black beans.
Now, my dad’s gonna spill the beans
on how he makes this secret sauce.
When I cook, I like to have the sauces mixed,
so I can add it and thicken it as I'm cooking.
I don't like to add things one at a time.
For the sauce,
we’ll add 1 tsp of light soy sauce, a 1/2 tsp of dark soy sauce,
1 tbsp of oyster sauce, 3 tbsp of water,
a 1/3 tsp of white pepper, a 1/2 tsp of salt,
and a 1/2 tsp of sugar.
Mix it up.
This color is too light.
Let's add more dark soy sauce.
We’ll add an extra teaspoon of dark soy sauce here for color.
Once you've mixed it up, give it a taste.
What I like is not necessarily what you like.
You need to like it!
This is what most restaurants use,
this ultimate starch.
Potato starch makes amazing sauces.
If you don't have potato starch, use normal cornstarch.
That's fine.
1 tsp of potato starch is enough.
With cornstarch, use a touch more.
What's the difference?
Sauces thickened with potato starch are translucent and beautiful.
Restaurants often use potato starch,
but you can have more realistic standards at home
and just use cornstarch.
That's fine!
If it's not enough, you can add more later.
We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com
along with step-by-step instructions and video clips
to guide you as you make the recipe at home.
With our wok ready,
we’ll do a final preparation step
before we start to cook.
Before we start cooking the noodles,
we need to add some oil to the beef.
Seal in the juices.
Add 2 tbsp of oil.
Seal it all in, see?
Seal it in with oil.
Now, let's start cooking the noodles.
Turn the heat to the highest setting.
We'll stir-fry the noodles first,
then the beef, and then pour the sauce over.
When is it hot enough?
See the smoke?
You can see the bottom of the wok is dry.
Actually, when you're cooking the noodles, you don't really need much oil,
because the noodles themselves are a bit oily.
We’ll add about a tbsp of oil.
Give it a swirl.
Turn the heat down.
Pour the noodles in.
Turn the heat back up.
"My ho fun turns mushy and sticks together in a giant lump as I fry it.
Why is this happening?"
Fresh rice noodles won't clump together.
If your rice noodles are not fresh, then they'll easily clump together.
First of all, you must loosen them before you fry them.
You don't need a spatula for this.
You can stir-fry this with chopsticks!
Watch.
With your preferred utensils,
we’ll move the noodles around the wok,
making sure they’re separated and spread out.
That's our base.
Don't overmix the rice noodles.
They'll fall apart if you mix them too much.
Understand?
After about a minute of stir-frying one side
without moving it too much,
we’ll flip the noodles over to the other side.
Smells great!
"How do you keep your noodles from sticking to the wok and breaking?"
To prevent sticking, you have to heat the wok until it's very dry.
Then, you add the oil.
Give it a quick swirl.
Don't start on very high heat.
Use chopsticks to stir-fry and mix it.
Don't stir-fry it very aggressively!
The faster you move, the more it will fall apart.
What about restaurants?
They toss using the wok.
They have different stoves.
Because the heat is more intense, it fries really quickly.
You can't do that at home.
At home, you use a spatula to stir-fry.
What I'm showing you is home cooking.
Lower the heat and keep cooking.
"How do you get a nice, crispy char on the noodles?"
You can flip the noodles to see the char,
that's flavor.
If you like that, then fry it like that.
If you don't like it, skip that.
The rice noodles are basically ready.
After another 30-40 seconds of stir-frying,
we can add some flavor to the noodles
with about 1 tbsp of light soy sauce.
Then stir the noodles to mix in the soy sauce.
Why did you lower the heat?
If you've fried the noodles until it's fragrant,
then cooking them more will burn them.
So lower the heat.
This carbon steel wok is already hot enough.
Once you add the light soy sauce, the noodles will separate.
That's it.
The noodle base is ready.
Scoop it out.
Once the soy sauce is mixed in, we can plate the noodles.
Once they're out, you have to loosen them.
Use chopsticks to pull them apart.
We'll cook the vegetables and the meat,
then put them on top.
We’ll use our chopsticks to separate
any noodles that are stuck in big clumps
and spread them out on the plate.
Now, get the oil heated up and cook the beef.
No need to clean the wok!
Add 3 tbsp of oil.
Right away, we’ll heat our wok and add oil to cook the beef.
All right, add the beef.
Lower the heat.
If you keep it at high heat, the beef will get tough.
Understand?
The oil can be a lower temperature.
When you fry the beef slightly,
so the beef stays really tender.
If you just cook it normally, will it be less tender?
You can do that!
But you have to take the time to flip each piece.
The beef is ready.
Don't fry them too long.
Just until the beef is 60-70% cooked through,
especially since it's steak.
After about a minute, we’ll take out the beef.
The beef looks so nice and tender.
We’ll set the beef aside in a strainer
to let any excess oil drip off.
I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our
wonderful Patreon supporters for helping bring this video to life.
If you enjoy our videos and are interested in supporting us directly,
head on over to patreon.com/madewithlau to learn more!
Now, we’ll pour out the excess oil
still in the wok from cooking the beef.
Pour out the oil again.
You can reserve this oil to use for cooking later.
It's important to wipe the side of the wok.
Or else the oil will drip down to the bottom.
Heat the wok again.
No need for more oil.
Add the garlic and ginger,
fry them until they're aromatic.
We’ll stir-fry the garlic and ginger until fragrant,
or about 10 seconds,
then add our fermented black beans.
Fermented black beans.
Fry them until they're aromatic too.
Can you smell the aroma?
My dad’s adding about a tbsp of water
to the leftover black bean pieces in the bowl
to use after the next step.
Now after 20-30 seconds of stir-frying the black beans,
we can add the onion and bell pepper.
All right, pour all of these vegetables in.
Stir-fry these too.
Then we’ll add in the water from the black bean bowl.
Add the bean soaking liquid too.
Toss them around.
Cook them through.
After another 10-20 seconds, we’ll add the beef.
Beef.
We’ll stir fry the beef for just 15-20 seconds,
then add our sauce.
Sauce.
Is it possible to add too much sauce
and then it gets too sticky and clumps together?
Even with a sauced noodle dish, don't make too much sauce.
If you have too much sauce, the noodles will just melt
and turn clumpy.
Just right.
It looks a little too thick.
Let's add a bit more sauce
so we can have more sauce to coat the rice noodles.
My dad adds another tbsp of water here,
because he thinks the sauce is too thick.
How do you know it's too thick?
You can see it!
You can see that it's done, it's done now.
Heat off.
Give it a try.
Oh my god!
Grab some.
Come on!
Have a taste.
Looks good!
Ladies first.
We try it first?
Mm, it tastes so good!
Eat more, try more.
It's so good.
Now, we’ll pour our saucy beef and vegetables over our noodles
and serve to our eagerly awaiting family.
Beef Chow Fun with Gravy.
It's so good!
The smokey flavor on the noodles is really good.
Beef Chow Fun with Gravy is complete!
I hope everyone enjoys it!
Hong Doy, time to eat!
Cheers!
Baby!
Are you a good big brother?
She's very happy.
She loves him.
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