Introduction: Beef is warm in nature without being drying, making it an excellent ingredient for dispelling cold during winter. However, while eating meat is easy, cooking it well is not. Many who have stir-fried beef know it can easily become overcooked. Let me share a few tips for stir-frying beef that keeps it tender.
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Coat with starch. Take a suitable amount of dry starch (such as cornstarch or potato starch) and mix with water in a 1:2 ratio to create a wet starch slurry. Toss the wet starch slurry with the cut beef, mix well by hand, and then let it sit for 30 minutes. Once the starch slurry evenly coats the surface of the beef, you can begin stir-frying. During the stir-frying process, the added starch gelatinizes, forming a film on the surface of the beef. This film locks in the moisture, ensuring the stir-fried beef is fresh, tender, and soft.
Coat with egg white. After slicing the beef, add an appropriate amount of egg white and mix well. Let it sit for 30 minutes before stir-frying. During cooking, the egg white mixture coagulates due to heat denaturation, which reduces the loss of moisture and nutrients from the beef, resulting in a smooth and tender texture. Coating with egg white is often used in combination with starching for even better results.
Add beer. Drizzling a suitable amount of beer over the beef and marinating it for 30 minutes before stir-frying is also a good option. This is because the enzymes in the beer can break down some of the proteins in the beef, thereby increasing its tenderness. However, due to the low enzyme content in beer, the tenderizing effect of this method is not as effective as the previous two.
Finally, to achieve tender stir-fried beef, it's best to choose lean and tender cuts when buying beef, such as tenderloin or sirloin. Also, be sure to cut against the grain, and the thinner the slices, the better. This way, the beef will be more tender after cooking.