Beef Tapa

hi there!

any cut of meat, really. the wonders of marination. actually, I would even go so far as to calling this cured beef.

in slicing the beef, make sure that you try to remove as much as fat as possible. now I am not saying strip it off every piece, but remove large pieces, this is important because you will be frying these and any remaining fat will be in the pan while frying. Aim for beef slices no more than 1-1.5cmwide, and around 6-8cm long. Im anal-retentive, i know, it aint news, move on.

Place meat slices in a metal bowl and heap on a good amount of brown-sugar. Enough brown suger such that you can easily cover every piece of meat with a coat of brown sugar. Once you have fully worked the sugar into the beef.... and I mean work it in; then add soy sauce such that you are able to 1/2 of the way submerge the meat. now work in the soysauce, and try to rub it such that you use up most of the liquid. you will notice it thicken. this is why it is important to work in the sugar first, you don't want to just wash it away with the soysauce. After a couple of minutes of working the entire mixture with you hands, move meat off to a corner of the bowl, drain off excess soy sauce then cover the tastiness with a foil cover and place into the fridge overnight.

The next evening/day/whenever you wish really, remove foil, look at the meat, admire, then add a little bit of white sugar (tempers the flavor) just enough for a thin coat over the top layer of the meat. work in the sugar again and massage the entire marinade, you want to do this to evenly distribute the flavor that has settled in the bottom on the bowl. refoil and place into the fridge again overnight. The second night of marination REALLY helps make the meat tender. I've rushed this dish with one evening, and it isn't half bad, but it is a little tougher and the flavor is not quite spread throughout the entire meat.

Now, for cooking. I highly suggest a wok, and this will become apparent why:

Place cooking oil, amount enough such that the flat layer of the wok has about .5-1cm of oil. Hah, now you know why its important to remove excess fat! Now, it is important that you oil be on high, and be piping hot when you place in the meat. and I mean HOT. like near smoking. Don't worry about any splashback.... be a man :)

Once hot, add on all the meat and stir vigorously. You need to make sure the meat starts releasing liquid before it sticks to the wok. Once you see the juice come out, and bubble, cook the meat for about another 5-6min in this. I usually place a pan cover on top of the meat. and once you see the mixture bubbling out from the sides of the pan cover, that indicates it is near 3/4 cooked.

Now, once the meat is about 3/4 of the way cooked, remove it from the center of the wok. Make sure that all the meat is hanging up on the sides of the pan. You will then leave them there while you reduce the juice and flavory goodness to a nice sticky deliciousness. Keep the wok near high, and stir the liquid for a while, letting it bubble. Keep at this, occassionally mixing in the meat quickly, just to keep the meat moist, but then promptly return it to the sides of the pan. Reduce the mixture until you can tell it is pretty thick and reduced in volume to about 1/3-1/4 of what it used to be. You want the meat off to the side to prevent it form overcooking AND this dramatically increase the rate at which the mixture reduces.

Once you've reduced the mixture, mix the meat in one last time, and the sauce must be reduced to the point that some of it invariably gets stuck on the sides of the wok, no longer running down the sides - my indicator of whether or not I have reduced it enough.

While the dish cools (i toss the dish throughly in the wok, trying to cover every piece of meat with the reduction, then leave the entire thing in the wok while i move to the next thing), I cook eggs over easy, or to your liking, and slice up some tomatoes.

This dish is served on a bed of rice, meat on top, tomato slices and egg on the side.

I suggest: GO!