20161031
Made three batches of stir fry. The first just marinated beef, with little corn starch. The second was soaked in baking soda, then heavily sauced. The last had lots of corn starch in the marinade, but no sauce at the end. The best was the the beef stir fry following the recommendations of cook’s illustrated:
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/8719-beef-stir-fry-with-bell-peppers-and-black-pepper-sauce
A 5 minute soak of 1 lb of beef in 1 tblsp water + 1/4 tsp baking soda really does help tenderize the beef. Also, making the sauce at the end with cornstarch and oyster sauce really does enhance the flavor since the sauce coats the meat so well.
Instead of constant stirring, I did let the meat sear a bit because the stove truly can’t get hot enough to impart “wok-hei” into the dish.
Adding a little vegetables, onions, bell peppers, etc. really does elevate the appearance and variety of the dish.
You can add corn starch to the marinade, and it will get the meat saucy, but then the corn starch burns to the bottom of the wok. I think it’s better to marinade with little cornstarch at the beginning, and then add the corn starch slurry at the end to make the sauce.
Finally starting to develop a feel for stir fry, and this was a good experiment.
