A brilliant combination of authentically Cantonese tastes and textures. The beans are crisp and sweet, the squash is spongy and earthy and the mushrooms are light, yet elastic with a subtle flavor. Quickly stir-fried together they make a unique dish to serve as a main curse or alongside a meat dish. Serves 2 as a main dish or 4 as part of a multi-dish Chinese style dinner. Chinese long beans are just thinner and longer than regular green beans, so regular green beans are a perfectly acceptable substitute. Silk squash is also known as luffa, dishwater gourd, and Chinese okra. It’s dark green and looks like a thin zucchini and has a sweet, but very mild taste, similar to cucumber. It’s a bit hard to come by, but zucchini and cucumber are both okay substitutes. Cloud ears are also known as black fungus, tree ears, and jelly mushroom. It has a very, very mild flavor and is used in most dishes for its texture. They’re easiest to find sold dried and packaged (looks like dried, black, wrinkled paper), and must be soaked in warm water before use. When soaked in water for about 10 minutes, it swells and resembles wavy seaweed or jelly.
Make and share this Pepper Steak recipe from Food.com.
This is the story: A certain Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn was known to be frequented by “wiseguys”. One wiseguy in particular (let’s call him Joey) was very fond of the classic Beef with Oyster Sauce, although he often kidded the owner about the thin sliced “mystery meat” it was served with. “Don’t youse guys ever feel like a nice steak?” was the usual question. Eager to please his patrons, the owner instructed the chef to prepare the dish in this manner, as a surprise for Joey. Realising a knife would be needed to cut the steak, a waiter was told to bring one to the table before serving, as knives aren’t part of a usual place setting in Chinese restaurants. The waiter, new and somewhat intimidated by the wiseguys, nervously handed the knife directly to Joey. Joey eyeballed the knife, and looked up at the waiter. “Are youse expecting trouble tonight?” Preparing this dish is no trouble at all.
This is one of my favorite Cantonese dishes. I got this from an Australian Women’s Weekly cookbook that I’ve had and loved for years. The original recipe called for deep frying, which you can certainly do, I just stir fry it.
Another from my favorite Chinese cookbook, “Chinese Cooking Class” by Australian Women’s Weekly. This is just as good as Chinese take-out Lemon Chicken. The lemon sauce is supposed to be tart and sweet at the same time.
