Beef in black bean sauce

4.91 from 32 votes

Recipe video above. This incredible Beef in Black Bean Sauce recipe is from Hannah, a chef at our food bank RecipeTin Meals who was born and raised in China, and comes from a long line of chefs. I'll wager this recipe beats any Chinese restaurant you’ve tried - even “fancy” city ones - and it is far, far cheaper. Made from scratch, it leaves jarred sauces in the dust. Shockingly easy!

Prep Time20

Cook Time10

Marinating1

Total Time1 30

Course: Mains

Cuisine: Chinese

Keyword: beef in black bean sauce

Servings: - 5 people

Calories: 421cal

Author: Nagi

Ingredients

1/2 cup (75g) preserved black beans (salted black beans, fermented black beans, Note 1)
400g/14 oz beef rump steak (US: top sirloin) , thinly sliced 3mm / 0.1" (Note 2)
1 brown onion , medium size, cut into 2.5cm/1" squares
1 green capsicum (bell pepper), medium size, cut into 2.5cm/1" squares
1 tbsp garlic , finely minced with a knife ~ 4 cloves (Note 3)
1/2 cup peanut oil (or vegetable, canola) (Note 4)
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (shaoxing wine) (Note 5)

Tenderising beef marinade:

1 tbsp light soy sauce (Note 6)
1 tsp dark soy sauce (Note 6)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp cornflour / cornstarch
1/4 tsp baking soda (bi-carbonate) (Note 7)
1 tbsp sesame oil (toasted ie brown, not untoasted which is yellow)

Sauce:

1 tbsp light soy sauce (Note 6)
2 tsp white sugar
2 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch (20g)
1 cup water

Serving:

White rice

Cups - Metric

Instructions

Abbreviated recipe:

Marinade beef 1 hour, soak beans, mix sauce. Shallow fry beef 30 seconds, remove. Discard all but 3 tbsp oil. Add and cook in this order: black beans 20 seconds, garlic 10 seconds, onion + capsicum 1 minute, beef 1 minute, cooking wine 30 seconds, sauce 1 minute or until thickened. Serve!

Marinade beef:

Mix the marinade ingredients EXCEPT sesame oil in a bowl. Add beef, mix to coat. Add sesame oil, mix again.
Marinade - Refrigerate to marinade for 1 hour.

Preparation:

Soak beans - Put the salted black beans in a medium bowl and cover with water. Set aside for 30 minutes to 1 hour to soak, then drain.
Mix sauce - Put the cornflour, soy sauce and sugar in a jug or small bowl. Mix until lump free then mix in the water. Set aside.

Cooking:

Cook beef - Heat the oil in a wok (or non stick pan) over high heat. Add the beef and cook, tossing, for 30 seconds until it changes from red to brown. Remove with a slotted spoon onto a plate.
Discard most of the oil in the wok, keep just 3 tablespoons.
Aromatics - Return the wok to high heat. Add the black beans and stir for 20 seconds, then add the garlic and stir for 10 seconds. Add the capsicum and onion, cook for 1 minute.
Beef - Add beef and any juices pooled on the plate, toss for 1 minute. Pour the Chinese cooking wine around the sides of the wok so it runs down into the beef then toss for 30 seconds (Note 8)
Sauce - Pour the sauce in, then stir and let it bubble for 1 minute or until the sauce thickens, is shiny and coats the beef beautifully.
Serve - Pour into a serving bowl and serve with rice!

Notes

1. Preserved black beans - Also called salted or fermented black beans, find it in Asian stores in the pickled/vac packed vegetable aisle, $2.70 a pack (long shelf life, or freeze). Wrinkled and a little squishy, not rock hard. Adds savouriness and salt, the key flavour in this dish. No substitute, sorry!

Note: don't confuse with regular Western dried back beans which are rock hard. Regular canned black beans cannot be used either.

2. Beef – Scotch fillet (boneless rib eye) or porterhouse/sirloin (US: New York strip) can also be used.

Best budget option: Blade roast (bolar or chuck blade) – ~65% cheaper, great results! Tenderise using one of these methods:

a) Marinate 24 hrs (instead of 1 hr), or
b) Toss beef with 1¼ tsp baking soda, refrigerate 40 min, rinse well. Then marinate 30 min (without baking soda) and proceed with recipe.

Chuck also works, but blade is easier to slice. Other options: brisket, gravy beef, topside/round. Use either a) or b) tenderising methods for these too. More info in Ingredients section.

3. Garlic - Knife best. If using a garlic crusher, add the garlic towards end of onion cooking time (else it will burn).

4. Oil quantity - To truly replicate restaurant silky soft beef, it needs to be shallow fried rather than sautéed. To reduce, use 3 tbsp and sauté the beef instead.

5. Chinese cooking wine ("Shaoxing wine")- essential ingredient for making truly "restaurant standard" Chinese dishes. Substitute with cooking sake or dry sherry. Non alcoholic sub - substitute half the water with low sodium chicken stock/broth.

6. Soy sauces - Light soy sauce: you can use any all purpose soy sauce but do not use dark soy or sweet soy. Dark soy: can substitute with light or all purpose soy but will lose colour and a bit of soy flavour. More information on soy sauces here.

7. Baking soda is a magic meat tenderiser! More in post or here.

8. Pouring Shaoxing wine around the side of the wok - traditional Chinese cooking technique so it "cooks" the wine before it reaches the ingredients.

Leftovers will keep for 3 days in the fridge, keeps very well. Not suitable for freezing (sauce thins).

Nutrition per serving, assuming 5 servings, excluding rice. I feel like the sodium is higher than it actually is because salt gets extracted during the soaking step.

Nutrition