One of the things I try to do with my blog is make authentic Chinese food easy for you to make in your kitchen. When cooking a different cuisine, it’s often our perception that it’s harder because it’s not familiar. I want to make Chinese cuisine more familiar with this ground beef stir fry, a dish you can have hot on the table in under 30 minutes. It’s incredibly delicious. Enjoy it with rice to soak up all the glorious sauce!
Magical ingredients for the sauce
Speaking of the sauce, one of the key ingredients I use in the sauce is fermented. Not only does it give you more gut-friendly probiotics in your diet but it helps make the taste extra rich. You have a few choices for fermented items to add to the sauce:
1. Fermented black beans
2. Doubanjiang
3. Sui Mi Ya Cai
In English, it’s called preserved mustard greens. Sui Mi Ya Cai (碎米芽菜) is used in dan dan noodles. It’s made from a very specific type of bean sprout – cardamine – which is native to Sichuan. Once it’s dried, it’s flavored with a variety of spices and sugar and then fermented. The taste is full umami that ranges from sweet to salty to savory. You can use this as your fermented ingredient if you can find it at your local Asian market or order it online.
One more note
Another thing you should know about this ground beef stir fry is that the other ingredients are flexible, too. Once you choose a fermented ingredient for your sauce, you can customize this dish to use ground chicken, turkey, or pork. Something else you’ll love about this dish, besides its savory taste, is that you can cook it all in one large non-stick skillet. That means less clean-up for you, which is always a win. Top it on some steamed rice, and you’ll have a dinner ready that is not only bursting with flavor but also full of nutrition. I hope you love this quick, easy, and delicious homestyle Chinese dish. Try it out tonight!
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
