Ingredients
Check off ingredients as you go
Serves 6
- 600 g (1.3 lb) beef, thinly sliced into strips (whiting steak, tenderloin, rib-eye or sirloin, thinly sliced)
- 2 large yellow onions, sliced
For the marinade
- 2 small cloves garlic, finely minced (or 2 Tbsp garlic powder)
- 1 cm (½ inch) piece fresh ginger, finely minced
- 3 Tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce substitute (also called mushroom soy sauce; use soy sauce if you can’t find it)
- a few Sichuan peppercorns (or crushed black pepper)
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
For cooking
- 3 Tbsp neutral oil (sunflower)
- 1 level Tbsp cornstarch (cornflour) dissolved in 3 Tbsp water
Since I don’t eat shellfish, here is my version of beef with onions made without oyster sauce (it’s replaced with a vegetarian substitute).
- In a large bowl, combine the oyster sauce substitute, soy sauce, garlic, pepper, ginger and beef. Mix well to coat the meat, then refrigerate for half an hour.
Slice the onions into small wedges.
Heat the sunflower oil in a very hot wok or skillet and sauté the onions. Once they are nicely seared, add the beef and cook just until it changes color (no longer, so it stays tender), stirring well. Pour in the cornstarch dissolved in 3 Tbsp water. Stir again and transfer to a serving dish.
Beef with onions is excellent with sautéed vegetables, an Asian vegetable stir-fry, stir-fried noodles or rice.
Tips and variations
- For the marinade, you can add a pinch of baking soda; it tenderizes the meat.
- You can add some chopped Thai basil when serving, if you have any.
- Whatever you do, don’t add salt, as the sauces are already salty enough.
- As for the oyster sauce substitute, I find it in Israel in the Asian aisle; it’s sometimes called “Hoi stir sauce”, sometimes mushroom soy sauce. This sauce is really what gives the dish the same taste as at a Chinese restaurant.
To learn all about the meat cut numbers in Israel and how to use them, take a look at my guide to meat in Israel