Yunnan Beef Fried Mint (傣味炒牛肉) | Chinese Cooking Demystified

Beef with Mint! If you're been to Yunnan restaurants outside of Yunnan, you've definitely seen this dish. It's a take on Dai Flavor Beef, an aggressively herbaceous Dai people's dish.

0:00 - Where's this dish actually from?
1:43 - Herb Prep
2:16 - Spice Prep
2:52 - Beef Prep
3:29 - Why Hand Mince?
4:12 - Marinating
4:38 - Herbaceous Yunnan Version
5:42 - Minty Coastal Version
6:23 - Do people in Yunnan eat Beef & Mint?

INGREDIENTS

* Beef chuck, 320g. Preferably minced by hand.

* Marinade for the beef: 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cornstarch (生粉), 1 tsp soy sauce (生抽), 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce - optional (老抽), 1/4 tsp Sichuan peppercorn powder a.k.a. Fagara powder (花椒面), ~1/2 tbsp oil to coat

* Mint (薄荷叶), 160g -or- Sawtooth Coriander a.k.a. Culantro (大芫荽), 40g; Jiucai Chinese Chives a.k.a. Buchu (韭菜), 40g; Laksa Leaf a.k.a. Rau Ram a.k.a. Vietnamese Coriander (叻沙叶/辣蓼), 40g; Thai Basil a.k.a. horapha (罗勒/金不换), 40g. Note that if going the not-mint route, as the bottoms of the sawtooth and the jiucai need to be sliced off, you'll want to buy 50g each of those to get ~40g each after prepping.

* Aromatics: 2-3 cloves garlic, minced; ~4 heaven facing (朝天椒) -or- Thai bird's eye chilis

* Seasoning for the stir fry: 1 tsp soy sauce (生抽); 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp star anise powder (八角粉), 1/4 tsp Chinese Black Cardamom a.k.a. Tsao-ko powder (草果面) -or- 1/8 tsp nutmeg powder, 1/8 tsp MSG (味精)

* Water, 1/4 cup

PROCESS

Full, uncut version of the frying up of the mint version's here if that's a help:
https://youtu.be/0IBfBHI_M44

Ok, so the process is basically the same for the minty one and the herbaceous one. The only differences are (1) for the herbaceous version, the jiucai Chinese chives are added before all the other herbs and (2) for the mint version, we added the mint in three stages in order to help keep the color... this being Youtube and all, looks are important - if you don't care, you can dump all the mint in.

1. Make some star anise and Chinese black cardamom powder (2:25). Using four each will give you a nice quantity to keep in the cupboard. Toast over medium-low flame for ~5 minutes, peel the cardamom and remove the seeds inside, grind both into powders.

2. Hand mince the beef, if hand mincing (2:55). First slice the beef into a dice, then grab a pair of cleavers and just start chopping - periodically folding the meat over itself. This will take a bit - to get good and fine, I find beef generally needs around fifteen minutes (it's a little harder than pork is).

3. Prepare for the stir fry: marinate the beef (4:12), as well as slice up your garlic and chilis.

4. Stir fry (4:38): as always, first longyau - get your work piping hot (for reference, ~240C surface temp - basically, around steak searing temperature), shut off the heat, add in ~2-3 tbsp of oil, give it a swirl. Heat on high now, add in the beef - break it up a bit, fry until cooked through, ~2 minutes. Scooch the beef up the side of the wok, swap the flame to low, add another tablespoon of oil (if needed), fry the garlic/chilis for ~15 seconds til fragrant. Swap the flame back to high, fry everything all together, swirl in the soy sauce, add the seasoning. Quick fry, and if you're using jiucai Chinese chives, add them in at this point. Add in the water and cover. Swap the flame down to medium, wait ~1 minute or so until the water to absorbed into the beef. Uncover and add in the herbs. Immediately shut off the heat, and mix it off the heat for ~30 seconds.

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Outro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพ
Found via My Analog Journal (great channel): https://youtu.be/GHaL5H-VYRg