What's up everyone?
Today we're making
Black Pepper Beef
My name is Randy
And we are the Laus
We're on a mission to celebrate
And pass down our Chinese heritage
One meal at a time
After 50 amazing years as a Chinese chef
My dad's finally retired
And he's here to teach you all of his secrets
To make the perfect Black Pepper Beef
A dish he's made hundreds of times
Hello, my friends!
Nice to see you guys again
Today we're going to learn how to make Black Pepper Beef
The cut of beef we're using is New York steak
It weighs around 12 oz
In terms of beef cuts, the New York Strip
Comes from the top part of the short loin behind the ribs.
It's extremely tender, not as fatty as a ribeye
And not as lean as a filet mignon.
When shopping for beef, if available and affordable,
You might consider these two labels:
Certified Organic, and Grass Fed, Grass Finished.
The USDA Certified Organic label applies to a lot of different foods and drinks,
But for beef, it refers to cattle that eat entirely organic feed,
Have access to a pasture, and are never administered antibiotics or hormones.
Grass Fed, Grass Finished, also known as 100% Grass Fed,
Means that the cattle ate grass for the entire duration of its life.
The Grass Fed label by itself can refer
To cows that started on a grass-fed diet,
But were fed grain in the last few months of their lives
In order to help them quickly gain weight.
The beef that we bought doesn’t have these labels,
But the labels are stamps of approval on beef that
Holds more nutritional value
And that is sourced more ethically and sustainably.
We'll cut the beef first
Cut out fatty parts from the beef
This piece of meat is thinner there and thicker here, right?
So we'll cut it to the same thickness
Next, can you see the grain lined up horizontally?
We'll cut it vertically through the center, against the grain
These are beef tenderloins
Just cut it like how I'm doing
You might notice my dad referring to this as ngàuh láuh
Ngàuh means beef, and láuh is a reference to a Chinese style
Of cutting meat into long and thin pieces
In Cantonese, láuh is another name for willow tree
In which the leaves are similarly long and thin
The English name for this dish is usually just Black Pepper Beef
But the Chinese name, hāk jīu ngàuh láuh
Makes it a point to distinguish exactly how the meat is cut
This isn't always true, but there's a tendency in Chinese cuisine
to slice the meat before serving, versus Western cuisine
Where we typically slice the meat after it's cooked
I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our
Wonderful Patreon supporters to help 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!
We've done cutting the meat
Now, we'll use cold water to wash the meat
So what's the benefit of this?
This helps to wash off the blood from the meat
Often, the meat is kept in the freezer
After removing the blood, the meat will be clearer and won't smell bad
This will also remove the odor from your fridge, you know?
Okay, let's pour out the water
We've finished cutting the meat
Now, we'll prepare the sauce for the marinade
For the marinade, we'll be mixing 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp water
1 tbsp of Shaoxing wine, and 1 tbsp of red wine
Today we’re using some red wine
I want to add a bit of grape essence and sourness to the meat
The taste will be very special
You're welcome to try
Of course, if you don't want to add it, that's okay too
I'll add 1 tbsp red wine into the marinade
That's all for the marinade, stir it evenly
We've finished preparing the marinade
Drain the water out of the meat first
See？
Squeeze out that blood
The bottom is full of blood
The meat will taste better after we do this step
A common misconception is that the red juice
That leaks out from meat is blood, but it's not
Most of the time, the blood has already
Been drained by the time you buy it
And the red juice is actually a result of
Of freezing the meat during transport
When you freeze meat, which is about 75% water
The water inside the muscles expands into ice crystals
Which rupture the muscle cells, and when the ice thaws
It carries some myoglobin with it
Myoglobin is an iron-rich protein that turns
Bright red when it's exposed to oxygen
The purpose of myoglobin is to store extra oxygen
In muscles that are used for extended periods of time
Interestingly enough, this is why not all meats are red or dark
Beef and pork meat are red because
Cows and pigs stand and roam almost all day
In contrast, fish meat is mostly white
With some red meat around the fins and tail
Because fish float in water and they aren't
Constantly using the bulk of their muscles
Put all the meat into the marinade
We'll use our hand to mix them all together
To let the meat absorb the marinade
We'll mix and massage the meat for about 30-60 seconds
This helps the beef absorb the marinade and become more tender
We've done marinating the beef
Now, we'll start to cut the vegetables
For our vegetables, we'll be mincing 2 cloves of garlic
And slicing up a variety of bell peppers and red onion for color
For each bell pepper, we'll only be using about 1/4 to 1/3 of each
So if you'd rather just stick to one color
And use up a whole entire bell pepper, that's fine too
G Leong from Patreon asked
Can you make this vegetarian?
It can be done
Which depends on what ingredients you used to cook
You can use bell peppers like us and also mushrooms
It's the same procedure
Stephen from Patreon also asked
What other variations of this dish can you do?
You can use any kind of meat for this dish
Black Pepper Pork Chop, Black Pepper Beef
Any meat can be used to make this dish
Black Pepper Fish, Black Pepper Shrimp
That's okay too! As long as you like it
He said yes
Everything?
Yeah, you can do pretty much a lot of meat
I want this black pepper sauce on a bunch of noodles
Yes, you can
You doing it right now
Try it out
I am doing it (laugh)
Okay, finished cutting
If you add too many vegetables, does that add too much moisture?
Yeah, you are right
These veggies have high water content
If you add too much, the dish will get soggy after cooked
So it won't be good if adding too much veggie
Next, we'll create the sauce for our black pepper beef
We'll be mixing 1 tbsp cornstarch, 1 tbsp water
1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp red wine, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine.
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
Personally, I like to add lemon to our Shaoxing wine
I like how it tastes
It's okay if you don't add lemon to it, this is only my preference
This is how I usually do at home
Normally for home cooking, I'll add lemon to the wine after buying it
It's best to add the lemon peels
Okay, we'll stir the mixture well
The beef should have finished marinating by now
Before cooking, we'll add 2 tbsp oil to the beef
This will help the meat to seal in the juices
After cooking, the juices get trapped inside in the meat
Mix the beef around for about 20-30 seconds to evenly coat the oil
Then, we'll set our stove to high heat
And let our wok heat up for about 2-3 minutes
Once our wok is hot enough, we'll add about 2 tbsp of corn oil
Or any oil with a high smoke point
Until the oil is shimmering or forming ripples across the surface
Next, we'll add the meat into the wok
We'll let the beef cook for about 1 minute
We'll keep stir-frying until the beef is almost cooked
For New York steak, it doesn't need to be fully cooked
All this meat, see?
For this dish, you must stir-fry the meat and scoop them out first
Then we’ll stir-fry the vegetables
You must not add veggies to the beef and stir-fry them together
That way, the beef won't taste good as it's overcooked
You must scoop out the meat first before stir-frying the veggies
Add the meat again after the veggies is cooked and mix them well
This makes it taste great
It turns color, right?
Scoop it out
The wok still has oil in it so we won't add more oil
Add the garlic to the wok
Let the garlic cook for about 20-30 seconds
The garlic is cooked, can you smell the garlic aroma?
Okay, let's add all the other vegetables into the wok
Stir-fry them slowly
Cook the veggies for about 90 seconds
Okay, the veggies are almost cooked by now
Now, we'll add the beef into the wok
Let the beef cook for about 45-60 seconds
Can you smell the aroma?
Now, it's time to add the sauce into the wok
After adding the slurry sauce, cook everything for another minute
Notice that my dad didn't use the entire sauce
Which was a judgment call that he made
Since this recipe isn't supposed to have
Too much sauce pooling at the bottom of the dish
At last, we'll add 1 tsp sesame oil to the dish
Black pepper is the star of the dish
As it's called black pepper beef
We'll use 1 tsp black pepper powder
We sprinkle it slowly into the pan instead of pouring it all
This is to ensure the black pepper powder is mixed evenly
Cook and mix everything together for another minute
Okay, let's have a taste to see if it's good
Son, come on
Is it good?
Uh-huh
Good!
Okay!
And finally, we'll plate our dish and call our loved ones over to eat
The black pepper beef is cooked
Let's eat
Hong Doy, come eat!
Will Hong Doy eat first?
Hong Doy!
We got ourselves a party tonight
Cheers!
Let's eat!
Black Pepper Beef!
Cam Cam, let's eat together
So the number 1 question we have, 13 people asked this
Including a Patreon member, shout out to G Leong
What is the best cut of beef?
For the best cut, my favorite is the New York steak
The meat is not tough
Even if you don't know how to stir-fry, New York steak won't be tough
Somebody asked too, what is a good backup cut (of beef)?
I think Daddy mentioned that a second option is tenderloin
Tenderloin?
Tenderloin, yeah
This is our second most popular question
From 2 Patreon members, Gwen, Belinda, and other people on Instagram
How do you make this meat tender?
If you follow restaurant practices, they'll add baking soda to the meat
Oh, but you didn’t add it?
Not today, because we were shorter on time and it takes longer.
Even if I added baking soda
We'd need to wait at least 30 min after adding baking soda
For it to have an effect on the meat
That's why I only massage them with my hands
Before cooking the meat, add some oil to the meat and mix them well
Using oil to coat the meat allows the juices to remain inside the meat
So that the cooked meat is tender and not dry
You can also massage the meat for a longer period of time
One person asked, how do you not overcook it?
Don't stir-fry it for too long
How we did it is perfect, especially for this kind of steak
When you eat steak, it's only medium-rare, medium, or medium-well.
Beef does not need to be fully cooked, pork needs to be cooked longer
How do you know if it's cooked?
The moment it changes color. Originally, it's red in color
When you cook it until it turns white, then it's cooked
When you were cooking, you didn't add in all the sauce
Yeah, I know
How do you know when it's enough sauce?
I already know the amount of sauce I added is enough for the dish
So you don't want the dish to have too much sauce?
Yeah
If too much cornstarch is added, the dish will become very thick
If it's thick, then the meat won't taste good, understand?
So there shouldn't be any sauce at the bottom of the dish?
Yeah, no sauce
See if there's any sauce
There won't be any even after you finish the dish
Is there any sauce? Not really...
No, it's pretty dry
So somebody was asking about the black pepper
Like what kind of black pepper you use?
For this one, we just used regular black pepper
But do restaurants use different kinds of black pepper?
It's the same
For people who use a black pepper grinder, that'll be spicier
Can you add too much black pepper, does it ruin this dish？
Cause somebody is like I love black pepper
I'm just gonna keep adding it
Does it ruin the dish or can it handle a lot of pepper?
It shouldn't be a problem, it all comes down to preferences
If someone likes to add more then please go ahead, it's not a problem
What if they use the black pepper sauce sold at the store?
The black pepper sauce that's sold at the store?
Are those good?
Yeah, you can use that too
But I never buy those kinds of sauce, I always make my own sauce
The sauces you make taste better?
It's not about the taste, just that I prefer the one I made
I trust my own skills
If you don't know how to make the sauce then you can just buy them
I know how to make it so I won't buy it at the store
It's expensive and a waste of money
And it's not necessarily better than the sauce I make myself
It's like making Char Siu, you can also just buy the sauce elsewhere
You don't have to mix the char siu sauce by yourself
But for daddy, he never buys any ready-made sauce
Like for steaming fish, you can also buy a sauce for it
But not for me, cause I like to make the sauce myself
Is there a difference if you use fresh vs frozen meat for tenderizing?
Mom, mom, mom
Ba, Ba, Ba
Yeh Yeh, Yeh Yeh! (Grandpa)
♪Laughter♪
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Fresh beef is definitely better than frozen beef
For frozen beef, you have to do it like me
Wash it with water and squeeze it dry before marinating
Is there anything - you have to wait until it's fully defrosted?
Not necessarily
I think if you want the meat to be cut easily
It's best to cut it when it's half thawed, right?
Yeah, the one I used is not fully defrosted too
Yeah, actually when he cut it, it was half-frozen
Okay
Half frozen is easier to cut to the way you want
You have more control of the size of the meat slices
In a half-frozen state, you can control how big, thin, long, and short
So, is it maybe ideal…?
Ba, Ba, Ba
Yeh Yeh, Yeh Yeh! (Grandpa)
So is it maybe ideal to get a fresh piece of meat,
And then start freezing it just a little bit to make it easier to cut?
No!
♪Laughter♪
Because what can I do? I can cut the fresh meat just fine
He said, "I can cut anything"
♪Laughter♪
What about for Randy?
Should he freeze it a little bit?
It's not necessary, just cut it slowly
He said no, just cut slowly
Slowly cut the meat into small slices
I can cut it in one go
But in your case, it'll take a few more tries to cut it
I can cut it down in one movement
And you just need to cut a few more times, right?
It's just as good, no problem
Are you gonna cook this dish for your dad?
I mean, yeah
♪Laughter♪
Cam Cam is laughing at you
♪Laughter♪
Laughing at your dad?
♪Laughter♪
He's teasing Daddy!
♪Laughter♪
He said, “Yeah right!" (laugh)
♪Laughter♪
Good joke, Dad!
♪Laughter♪
So cute!
♪Laughter♪
Hong Doy is awesome! Hong Doy is awesome!
Hello, dear friends and audience! Thank you!