Add this mixture to the meat and squish the bag so that each piece is well coated. Try velveting meat and shrimp for noodle favorites such as. Add meat and cook, stirring as needed, for about 3 to 5 minutes or until lightly browned. To give your velveted meat an. Even 10 minutes will suffice. Cook the egg noodles separately on the stovetop, Before serving, stir in the noodles and a slurry of sour cream, cornstarch, and 1 cup of hot broth from the pot. It has avelvety texture. After the water is massaged into the chicken, it should be absorbed within 10 minutes with no visible standing liquid. In this post, we will teach you how to velvet chicken to yield the most tender and flavorful results for your favorite stir fries. I cleaned and sliced vegetables, peeled shrimp, made egg rolls and yes, I sliced up many chicken breasts! In a bowl, combine egg white, Chinese wine, oil, cornstarch and salt. Weve seen other sources on the Internet suggest adding egg white to velveting marinades. Discovery, Inc. or its subsidiaries and affiliates. Start by beating the egg in a bowl and lay it aside. This method is achieved by pouring some soda into water. 5 stars for sure! Subscribe to our email list and be sure to follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube! My Ground Beef Smells Like Eggs | Can I Still Eat It? In Chinese cooking, proteins like beef, pork or chicken are velveted first before stir-frying them. Bring to a boil. After marinating, the chicken is tossed into a wok and flash-fried with oil over high heat. Tenderizing your beef is the first step of the traditional process of velveting beef practices by Chinese chefs. Looking for more authentic recipes? I do this with my 12-inch butcher knife. Usually, add cornstarch and beaten egg and whisk with baking soda powder to tenderize the beef. Velvet the beef: Place steak in a large ziploc bag. Water-blanching did produce meat with a slight residue. Let stand 1-2 hours. Use your hands to stir up the beef during the rinsing process. Its a way of preparing sauted meat in a way that they become tenderized. Rinse and dry the coriander. When choosing to blanch meat in oil, be sure to have a deep-frying thermometer with you so you know precisely when the oil reaches 350 Fahrenheit, according to Ma. For. Place your beef in the mixture and coat evenly. You can have it all done from start to finish in about 40 minutes. Although its safe, this method may not help you get a pleasant taste, especially on the first try. Fill a wok or a large pot with water. This works mainly because of the egg whites, which are naturally alkaline. For the best tender beef, marinate the meat with corn starch and baking soda along with other ingredients. Keeping the knife at about a 45 angle also makes the slices larger/wider. Shake off excess water, then use paper towels to blot away excess water (doesn't need to be 100% dry). SAUCE: Combine the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl with a whisk or in a mason jar with a lid. It also happens to be the most recommended cut of beef we use in our stir-fry recipes. Its time to share some Chinese restaurant secrets on how to tenderize beef. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This is a technique that the Chinese have used for ages, and you can try it out too. What Is Velveting & Why Does It Work? Beef can be marinated or seasoned before cooking, stir fried or deep fried, and it will be soft and tender, "velvet" like. In a bowl, combine egg white, Chinese wine, oil, cornstarch and salt. Step 1: Get mixing In a small bowl, beat the egg white. When it starts to smoke lightly, add a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil to coat the surface of the wok. Then add the fried pork and season with coarse salt and pepper. The technique that most Chinese restaurants use to create that juicy, delectable consistency we all know and love is called velveting, and it's not so much a secret as it is a little-known cooking method amongst U.S. home cooks. Remember to slice across the grain, especially if using chicken breast. Join my free email list to receive THREE free cookbooks! Drain. Happy cooking! I love this cooking technique! Some restaurants use baking soda as part of their marinade (you can tell by the crunchy or snappy texture of their chicken). The traditional method for velveting beef is to pass the meat through hot oil (essentially deep frying) which is literally referred to as zu yu () in Mandarin or jau yau in Cantonese. Growing up in a Chinese Filipino household meant that the meat I consumed went velveted without me even knowing. Order kung pao chicken or beef with broccoli at any Chinese or Chinese American restaurant and youll notice the texture of the meat light, tender, succulent and flavorful. When preparing your proteins, be sure to pat them dry before velveting, so youre not diluting your slurry ratio, says Ma. More often than not, its thanks to one simple pantry staple: cornstarch. When you freeze it and thaw it back out, you can use it for all types of recipes. Excess water dilutes the effectiveness of the coating, according to Young. in Cantonese, means passing through oil. It essentially refers to deep-frying. On rare occasions, you may get a tough chicken breasta condition called woody breast, caused by hardened muscle fibers. The cornstarch and oil gives the beef its velvety smooth texture, protecting the meat during cooking. Recipes Beef 272 Show detail Preview View more To velvet beef using the dry method, simply combine 1 tablespoon of cornstarch or baking soda with 1 teaspoon of rice wine and 1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce in a bowl. Now, cut your beef into 1/4 thick slices. Cornstarch is the foundation of Chinese cooking and this magical pantry ingredient is commonly used to thicken soups, stews and sauces. There are several ways to tenderizing beef for stir-fries. Velveting is basically a method that coats any type of meat slices (beef, pork, or chicken) in a thin layer of starch, and then quickly flash fried to bring out the gelatinous texture of cooked starch. Heres how to do it at home. Pictured below is the marinated beef before cooking. Factors such as brands purchased, natural variations in fresh ingredients, etc. Weird I know! When slicing the flank steak into small pieces, slice against the grain (perpendicular to the long lines of muscle). TheWoksofLife.com is written and produced for informational purposes only. Bon Apptit may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Exercise care when adding or removing ingredients to and from the hot liquid. Tiong says the starch velveting method helps give meat extra flavour. If you dont add egg, its generally important to add a little bit of water to make the mixture liquid and properly coat the meat, says Kathy Chen, head chef at Wenwen, a cozy Taiwanese eatery in Brooklyn. Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @kawalingpinoy on Facebook and Instagram! Allow it to sit for at least 20 minutes (longer if you have time). One teaspoon of baking soda is enough for about 250 grams of meat. Increase the cornstarch and youll end up with something thicker and more substantive, maybe a slurry better-suited to a stew or soup, like the Chinese Filipino misua I grew up with. (If you can't find Shaoxing wine in a local Asian market, dry sherry or a rice wine like sake make decent substitutes.). Knowing how to velvet meat has helped cure me of my addiction to Chinese takeout which has definitely eased the load on my budget. Whether you go with the simplest approach, or more advanced restaurant-grade methods, velveting makes a huge difference, and is an essential step to making any stir-fry dish top notch. All restaurants (and most home cooks) velvet their chicken before making stir-fries, fried rice, etc. There are several ways to velvet, but at its most basic level, it involves marinating meat with at least one ingredient that will make it alkaline. Various online calculators also provide different results, depending on their sources. People go for either egg white or baking soda as they are both alkaline ingredients. cornstarch, 1 Tbsp. Here are tips to pulling off your own well-balanced, ever-changing assortment. When you feel its time to stir-fry the velvet meat, cut the onions into very thin strips and the chives into rings. Wen agrees and says, I would recommend mixing all the marinade ingredients together very well before adding in your meat. A Study in Safety, How to Drain Ground Beef | 2 Easy Methods. This post may contain affiliate links. When blanching chicken, you may want to add a pinch of salt or more soy sauce or oyster sauce to the marinade, since some of that seasoning will be washed away while cooking. In a colander, drain chicken. Basically has written about the power of cornstarch before, but in this case it is more than just an ingredient: Cornstarch is the foundation of a Chinese cooking method known as velveting, which refers to marinating protein in cornstarch and, in the fullest sense of the technique, passing it briefly through hot oil or water before incorporating into stir-fries, soups, and stews. But its not even steaks range from economical to high quality. 6. Korean cuisine is known for its impressive spreads of banchan a.k.a. This process tears all the fibers apart, and when you thaw it out and stir-fry it, its incredibly tender. Velveting beef involves slicing it into very thin pieces and adding them to a mixture made up of cornstarch or baking soda. Instead, when it comes to stir-fries, several Made With Lau dishes involve marinating proteins properly with an alkaline ingredient, and then employing a stir-frying method that ensures they stay tender and dont overcook. Alkaline egg whites tenderize beef for stir fry dishes. Next, you need to coat the meat in baking soda and freeze it. 2 teaspoons cornstarch 2 teaspoons vegetable oil Instructions First, slice your chicken into 1 to 2 inch pieces, about inch thick. Just make sure to drain the chicken/meat to rid of the cornstarch marinade as much as possible. To tenderize beef, the Chinese adopted a specific cooking method. The most important part of this process and the key to velveting is the marinade: the chicken needs at least half an hour to ensure that every microscopic inch of its surface is coated with the cornstarch slurry. That said, we think searing beef imparts more flavor than the jau yau deep-frying method. Cut the meat. Trying to slice chicken uniformly when it is soft and slippery can be difficult even with a sharp knife! Save the egg yolk for breakfast tomorrow morning. Check out our detailed posts on: Velveting is an essential step when preparing chicken breast (or even dark meat) for stir-frying. Place the blanched broccoli back in the wok. No deep frying, no special equipment. Since I am using your recipes and tricks since 2 years, everybody telling me, I am a magnificent cook. 2 teaspoons cornstarch 2 teaspoons Shaoxing Wine (Optional) Instructions Add baking soda and water to the sliced beef and massage with hands until most of the liquid is absorbed. Meat or seafood are marinated in a mixture of egg white, cornstarch and rice wine, and then briefly blanched in oil or water before finishing off in the stir-fry process with other ingredients. Lets say you have a 400 or 500-gram piece of topside beef, which is a cheaper cut than a steak. I feel there are merits to having both moist hydrated beef or a drier beef for some stir-fry dishes. So the beef flavour will only be as good as the cut you use. The solution is to add a smaller amount of baking soda and increase the marinating time. Required fields are marked *. However, I discovered two infallible and easier ways to perfectly velvet beef, with soy sauce and baking soda. Ad Choices. Although I dont think its relatable enough or a perfect analogy to describe velvet beef, that should give you an idea about what were trying to do. For shrimp, you can velvet it unless they are super fresh. Bring the water to a boil and add about 1 teaspoon of oil. If you're unsure for your cut of beef, go for 35 minutes. Next, Ill show you the steps to velveting beef using the baking soda method, including the ingredients and other variations. I recently made velveted beef for my Thai green curry recipe. When the sauce starts bubbling, add broccoli. Adding Shaoxing wine (2 teaspoons per pound) also adds flavor, but is totally optional for those of you who would rather not consume alcohol. For additional flavor, try adding 1 Tbsp. We provided measurements for velveting 12 ounces (340g) of chicken, which is typical for one stir-fry dish. But I want to perfect the method. Also, acidic solutions like oyster sauce, vinegar, and lemon are used for tenderizing beef for stir-fry dishes. Even when I under or over tenderised, it was still tender and juicy. The last step of velveting is pre-cooking, which really depends upon the dish you are cooking and the outcome youre looking for. This step tenderizes (baking soda) and hydrates (water) the beef. Whichever way you cook it, the beef comes out much more tender and juicy than even expensive cuts of beef like beef tenderloin! Its something I also use in my stroganoff recipes. Bring the water to a boil and add about 1 teaspoon of oil. Add your velveted beef one after the other when the oil is hot. So it makes it incredibly soft even if you stir-fry it at very high heat. Word of caution: The beef will turn freakishly bright red. Any excess moisture will create extra spattering from the hot oil when pieces are added to the wok, in addition to turning your stir-fry into a braise, as quoted in her cookbook. Thinly slice about 250 grams of beef. The tenderizing step makes any beef soft and moist, while marinating the beef gives it more umami flavor and that velvety coating you experience when eating at Chinese restaurants. Looking to make beef, pork, or shrimp instead? Slice the meat thinly against the grain, and add it to a large bowl. Pro tip: Alternatively, you can use red wine vinegar to replace the soy sauce in the mixture. That is the nature of peasant food making the most of whats available. The small amount of water moisturizes the chicken. Whisk together one egg white, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Egg whites are a common ingredient which helps the cornstarch adhere to the meat, but I hate having egg yolks lying around and choose to use Shaoxing wine instead. Im a fan of Chinese stir-fry dishes and brisket cooking. To sear, place your wok over high heat. Here are some tips to keep in mind. ~ Step 3. Then you will allow the beef cuts to rest for about an hour. It can be marinated with wet or dry seasonings, or cooked plain. Then, the cook adds it to a stir-fry with other ingredients. Thats the whole point, but it can only be done if the meat is thinly sliced. Add one tablespoon each of cornstarch, light soy sauce, one tablespoon each of vegetable or light sesame oil, mixed egg whites, and a dash each of sugar and salt to one pound of . Drizzle 2-3 tbsp of oil and stir fry the beef minced until no longer pink. Velveting is a process used in traditional Chinese cooking to prepare meats for stir-frying. Stir-fry until the chicken has turned opaque, and remove from the wok. You may also include two to three tablespoons of water. 2023 Warner Bros. Heat the oil in a wok (or a large frying pan). Time and again, my worldwide web pursuits for solid recipes that I know my family will eat has landed me back here.. Rinse beef well with tap water. How to Velvet Beef in Soy Sauce (Beef Stir-Fry Recipe) Preparation time: 20 minutes Maceration time: minimum 30 minutes Cooking time: 10 minutes Ingredients For 4 Persons 400g beef tenderloin or brisket 400g yellow onions 3.5oz chicken broth 1 egg 1 chive 4 tbsp sunflower oil or sesame oil 2 tbsp Chinese wine (or Shao Hsing) 2 tbsp potato starch Slice beef thinly against the grain. Here is a brief overview of how to velvet beef with cornstarch or cornflour. cheap rump, hanger) - 20 minutes, Brisket - the only cut I don't recommend, haven't been 100% happy with outcome. I learned that its the same technique they use in making Chinese flank steak beef and other recipes that involve meat. In most cases you want to preserve their fresh taste and natural texture, says Leung. However, its up to you. To find out if a soak longer than 15 to 20 minutes would do more harm than good, we treated 12 ounces each of ground beef, sliced chicken breast, and sliced pork with baking soda teaspoon for the beef and 1 teaspoon for the sliced meatsfor different lengths of time before cooking them. Give Vivian Chans Chicken Stir-Fry or Jet Tilas Beef and Broccoli a try. If not, skip down to the next section. Make sure to browse around and pick a favorite dish or two. For fish, velveting adds an extra silky texture.. (See Note 1 for different cuts). A little more trimming and care is required to prepare the beef chuck steak for stir-fry. Velveting flank beef can yield stir-fry results that make the beef tender and supple. Velveted inexpensive cuts of beef turned ultrasilky in a soup seasoned with ginger and black pepper. Velveting might be harder to pull off in a home kitchen. What To Serve With Beef Stroganoff: 17 Great Side Dishes! I use the coated meat in soups, stews, or stir-fries, transforming them from mere sustenance into meals with restaurant-level finesse. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Tell me how it goes! Your email address will not be published. If you try this tenderising technique, Id love to know what you think! I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if youre short on time and cost conscious. Give it a gentle shake to combine. Add chicken and marinate in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. In a colander, drain chicken. To obtain accurate nutritional information for a recipe, use your preferred nutrition calculator to determine nutritional information with the actual ingredients and quantities used. Its called velveting beef. In fact, if you put your ear very close to the beef, youll hear faint fizzing thats the baking soda at work! High Temperature Eye-of-Round Roast R. Author: Mary Claire Lagroue Published: Dec 16, 2019 Estimated Reading Time: 3 mins . Kaitlin Leung of The Woks of Life, a blog dedicated to Chinese cooking, shares that a standard velveting mixture could include egg white and cornstarch, plus a few tablespoons of water to help coat the meat yes, but also to make the meat extra tender and juicy. That said, if your chicken is a bit more fibrous than usual, take care to cut across the grain, similar to slicing beef. I use one egg white, big sprinkle of salt, 3 teaspoons of cornflour, tablespoon of soy sauce, and a tablespoon of wine (have used both red and white wine, dont have rice wine). Drain. Popular in Indian kitchens, masala dabbas are brilliant spice storage containers, but also so much more. Tenderising timediffers for different cuts of beef. For tender seafood like squid or scallops, velveting is typically unnecessary. Andrea Buck. To complete the velveting process, some cooks recommend dipping the marinated morsels in peanut oil for less than one minute on active fire. Worked BEAUTIFULLY Marinating beef for your stir-fry is an important second step of velveting that should never be skipped. Alcohol is one of my favorite ways to add complex, savory flavor to a dish. Make sure to browse around and pick a favorite dish or two. Remember to slice across the grain, especially if using chicken breast. Velveting beef begins with the steps we have explained above (involving tenderizing the beef and then marinating it with seasonings, oil and cornstarch). Whisk in the egg white till well combined but not frothy. kokopuffs Marinade and stir fry as part of your recipe. Once coated in cornstarch, slices of pork became incredibly tender when dunked into a steaming hot misua with sliced patola and vermicelli. To blanch, add the chicken to a wok filled with boiling water. When thinly-cut and skinless meat, such as chicken, is velveted, it is marinated in a base mixture of salt, liquid, and cornstarch for at least 30 minutes. Rinse well in colander to remove baking soda. Let us know in the comments if you have any questions! Water blanching is much more friendly (and healthy) for home cooking. I usually use a beef and oyster sauce stir fry recipe. Subscribe for the latest updates on new recipes, and get started with our family's Top 25 Recipe eBook! After its been tenderised, go ahead and marinate it in whatever you want wet sauce or dry seasonings. The next step is preparing the marinade. If youre not ready to stir-fry, you can season the meat after the soda has been rinsed off and refrigerate or freeze it. Your return on that investment just isnt worth the trouble. Much like browning in French cuisine, velveting locks in the original flavour and texture of the protein before it is finished in the next cooking step. After 30 minutes, take the meat out. We always give important details in all of our recipes, including preparation and cooking, but I thought it was time to write a post focused on preparing beef properly for the wok! It allows the velveting sauce youre applying to seep in well. When I was in culinary school, our chef taught us how to velvet pork for salt and pepper pork spareribs. It could be a tenderloin cut or any cheap cut. My name is Lalaine and welcome to Kawaling Pinoy. In Chinese stir-fry cooking, the way ingredients are cut should be consistent with each other. How to Velvet Beef in 2 Foolproof Methods. I thought we still wanted to stir fry it, wouldnt this make it deep fried? Simply boil enough water to cover the amount of meat you are velveting, then add the meat and cook until it becomes opaque. Thats enough time for all the velveting sauce or baking soda mixture to tear off all those connective tissues holding the flesh firmly. Proceed with stir fry recipe. Velveting is a critical Chinese cooking technique. We individually stir-fry the ingredients because our home stoves generally arent as powerful as those in restaurants. Cook for one minute or until the meat just turns opaque but is not cooked through. This is why its used in Chinese restaurants stir-fry and fillet beef dishes. Ready to perfect your velveting technique, and sink your teeth into magically tender dishes? Heat over "warm" setting until thickened. Other ingredients, like Shaoxing wine or sesame oil, may also be layered in. Not only is it easier, searing really brings out the chicken flavor and creates an ever-so-light crust. Make sure to remove the white sinewy bits as they will not soften and will make the meat chewy. What happens is that soda or whatever velveting ingredient youre using itches away at the fat molecules. Add the water and soy sauce (or oyster sauce) to the chicken in a medium bowl, and mix until the chicken is well-coated. Why is it that no matter what you order from an American Chinese restaurant, from egg drop soup to fiery kung pao chicken, the texture is out of this world? Hello Lalaine, So easy. There are several methods available, I've introduced the cornstarch/par-boil method in my ' How to Velvet Chicken ' post. Just like in stir fries made by your favourite Chinese restaurant! The chicken breast in this photo was partially frozen for easy slicing. Here youll find hundreds of delicious Filipino and Asian recipes. (Velveting chicken) . We'll show you how select, cut, and marinate beef for your wok! This is unnecessary. Cornstarch, of course, added in the last minutes of cooking, or better yet, used to velvet the ingredientsto coat the pieces themselves in a cornstarch-based slurry. With a slotted spoon, remove chicken from pot and drain well. Ill show you how its all done. Absolutely love that velveting tip, I used rump steak to make your chow mein and it was fantastic. Flank steak is flavorful, relatively reasonably priced, and readily available. Its easy to identify the long grains of muscle fiber in flank steak. Add the water and soy sauce (or oyster sauce) to the chicken in a medium bowl, and mix until the chicken is well-coated. Please read my disclosure policy. Note: Its thrice fried pork so you really have to drain the excess oil very well to not end up with an oily mess. Slow Cooker Roast Beef 2. Mix the meat with the potato starch, the previously beaten egg, 2 tablespoons of chicken broth, sugar, salt, and pepper. You can find me either in my kitchen (or someone else's) or at a big outdoor barbecue surrounded by friends and family. Heat the large wok/pan over medium-high heat. Jet Tila's Beef and Broccoli for the Master Your Menu episode of The Kitchen, as seen on Food Network. Use a good chefs knife, and as always, be careful when working with sharp knives! Cook over high heat while stirring until the sauce thickens. In food, as in other parts of life, language is a form of power, and velvetingan elegant skill wielded without much fanfare by home cooks and take-out spots alikedeserves as much recognition as a French roux. Besides tenderizing the meat, velveting also helps form a coating that promotes even browning and helps the sauce to adhere to the meat. Make the cornstarch slurry. Water-blanching is recommended for home cooks as Young, quoted from her cookbook Stir-Frying to the Skys Edge, says it is less complicated, reduces the amount of oil necessary for stir-frying and results in dishes that taste less fatty. Add the chicken in one layer, and allow to sear for 20 seconds. The most effective technique of velveting that I use involves using egg, sugar, and sauce. If using shrimp or scallop, make sure to shake out the water before combining it with any egg white-cornstarch mixture. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. While it freezes, the fat and sinew molecules break apart so that when you stir-fry it, its unbelievably soft. Additional seasonings are optional and vary from recipe to recipe. This will help ensure an even coating on all the ingredients and make the whole mixture an even pH [level].. Baking soda is a powerful tenderizer, but if too much is added, it can add an off-taste to the beef, which is why it is rinsed off.