Crispy Orange Beef
Hunan cuisine is one of the eight great regional cuisines of China and is well known for its hot spicy flavor, fresh aroma and deep color. When most Americans think of Hunanese cuisine, it is inevitably to orange beef that their minds turn. Although perhaps Hunan in origin, this recipe is really an example of New-York Chinese food. Much like Lemon Chicken, this is in fact a westernized recipe! First attributed to master chef T.T. Wang of Hunan Restaurant on Second Avenue in New York, it was created in 1971. Crispy orange flavored beef and crispy sea bass Hunan-style were in fact both attributed to Wang and his restaurant.
Most commonly experienced as a chicken dish in most countries in the western hemisphere, the names “orange chicken”, “orange chicken peel”, “orange flavored chicken”, and “tangerine chicken” are typically used for this particular dish. [Recipe for Orange Chicken] In Chinese, however, the classic dish is always known as “陳皮雞”, literally “Dried Citrus peel chicken”, referring to dried orange or tangerine peel, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine as well as cooking. For restaurants outside of Asia, fresh orange peel is often used instead, or even no peel at all. See Orange Chicken and How to Make Dried Tangerine Peel.
FMM: The Orange Flavored Beef we get from a Chinese restaurant around the corner is fairly sweet. It tastes almost like the sweet and sour sauce used for Sweet & Sour Pork or Chicken, and the beef is battered and fried like the pork and chicken are in these recipes (Sweet & Sour Pork or Chicken). I'm sure they use the same base sauce. The only difference seems to be the slivers of orange peel and the hot peppers added to the dish, and there is no pineapple, carrot, or bell pepper. Besides the beef, this dish came with some lightly steamed broccoli tucked around the edges.
Also see How to Make Crispy Beef
Crispy Orange Beef
from The Shun Lee Cookbook: Recipes from a Chinese Restaurant Dynasty by Michael Tong, 2007
This recipe is from Michael Tong, whose Shun Lee restaurants have delighted New Yorkers and the city's visitors for three decades. In his first cookbook (2007), Tong shares his most popular recipes from the Hunan, Sichuan, and Shanghai regions of China.
The original Sichuan recipe for this dish was for a cold, somewhat chewy appetizer of fried, dried, and shredded beef. It is a far cry from Shun Lee's Crispy Orange Beef, which was introduced in 1971, and which millions of Americans have since come to love.
8 ounces flank steak, cut into pieces 1 inch long, 1/2 inch wide, and 1/4 inch thick [can try substituting round steak, sliced thin against the grain]
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 orange
Sauce:
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
Vegetable oil, for passing through
1 cup cornstarch
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
3 scallions, white part only, trimmed and sliced diagonally into 1/2-inch pieces (1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon orange liqueur, such as Grand Marnier
1/4 teaspoon hot chili paste
1. Mix the flank steak, baking soda, and 3 tablespoons of water in a medium bowl. Cover, and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. (The baking soda will tenderize the steak. Most recipes wash the steak to remove the baking soda before adding the cornstarch mixture.)
2. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the colored zest from the orange. Cut the zest into thin strips about 1 inch long, and set them aside. Save the orange flesh for another use.
3. To begin the sauce, mix the sugar, vinegar, rice wine, soy sauce, and 1 tsp. cornstarch in a small bowl. Set it aside.
4. Heat a large wok over high heat. Add enough vegetable oil to come about 1 1/2 inches up the sides of the wok, and heat it to 375°F. Meanwhile, add the 1 cup cornstarch and egg white to the steak, and mix well to coat the steak with the batter.
5. Add the flank steak to the oil, one piece at a time so it doesn't splash or stick together, and stir gently until it begins to look crispy, about 1 minute. Using a wide wiremesh strainer, transfer the steak to a colander to drain. Using a fine-mesh wire strainer, remove any bits of fried batter from the wok.
6. Reheat the oil to 375°F, return the flank steak to the wok, and fry again until the beef is crispy all over, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a strainer to drain. Remove all but 1 tablespoon of the oil from the wok.
7. Return the wok with the oil to high heat. Add the scallions, flank steak, sugar-vinegar mixture, orange zest, sesame oil, Grand Marnier, and hot chili paste. Stir-fry until all of the ingredients are well-blended, about 30 seconds. Serve immediately.
[Serve with steamed white rice and steamed broccoli]
Makes 4 servings
Crispy Orange Beef
Cook's Illustrated, January/February 2013
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: Traditionally, this dish is made by frying multiple batches of lightly battered beef in about 8 cups of oil. We simplify the recipe by replacing the batter with a coating of cornstarch and freezing the dredged pieces of beef for easier handling as well as decreasing the oil to 3 cups. Our sauce uses orange pith as well as zest to add complex bitter notes. By caramelizing the orange peel before building the sauce, we mimic the flavor of the dried tangerine peels that are typically used.
1½ pounds sirloin steak tips, trimmed
1 tablespoon soy sauce
6 tablespoons cornstarch
10 3-inch strips orange peel, sliced thin lengthwise (1/4 cup)
Sauce:
1/2 cup orange juice (2 oranges)
3 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1½ teaspoons roasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 cups vegetable oil
1 jalapeno chile, stemmed, seeded and sliced thin lengthwise
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 scallions, sliced thin on bias
Cut beef with grain into 2- to 3-inch-wide pieces. Slice each piece against grain into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Cut each slice lengthwise into 1/2-inch-wide strips. Toss beef with 1 tablespoon soy sauce in bowl. Add cornstarch and toss until evenly coated. Spread beef in single layer on wire rack set in rimmed baking sheet. Put sheet in freezer until meat is very firm but not completely frozen, about 45 minutes.
Whisk orange juice, molasses, sherry, vinegar, sesame oil and 2 tablespoons soy sauce together in bowl.
Line second rimmed baking sheet with triple layer of paper towels. Heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium heat until oil registers 375 degrees. Carefully add 1/3 of beef and fry, stirring occasionally to keep beef from sticking, until golden brown, about 1 1/2 minutes. Using wire-mesh skimmer, transfer meat to paper towel-lined sheet. Return oil to 375 degrees and repeat with remaining beef. After frying, reserve 2 tablespoons frying oil.
Heat reserved oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add orange peel and jalapeno and cook, stirring occasionally, until about half of orange peel is golden brown, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Add ginger, garlic and pepper flakes; cook, stirring frequently, until garlic begins to brown, about 45 seconds. Add soy sauce mixture and cook, scraping up any brown bits, until slightly thickened, about 45 seconds. Add beef and scallions and toss. Serve immediately [with white rice and lightly steamed broccoli].
Serves 4
