What's up everyone? Today we're making Black Pepper Beef My name is Randy And we are the Laus We're on a mission to celebrate And pass down our Chinese heritage One meal at a time After 50 amazing years as a Chinese chef My dad's finally retired And he's here to teach you all of his secrets To make the perfect Black Pepper Beef A dish he's made hundreds of times Hello, my friends! Nice to see you guys again Today we're going to learn how to make Black Pepper Beef The cut of beef we're using is New York steak It weighs around 12 oz In terms of beef cuts, the New York Strip Comes from the top part of the short loin behind the ribs. It's extremely tender, not as fatty as a ribeye And not as lean as a filet mignon. When shopping for beef, if available and affordable, You might consider these two labels: Certified Organic, and Grass Fed, Grass Finished. The USDA Certified Organic label applies to a lot of different foods and drinks, But for beef, it refers to cattle that eat entirely organic feed, Have access to a pasture, and are never administered antibiotics or hormones. Grass Fed, Grass Finished, also known as 100% Grass Fed, Means that the cattle ate grass for the entire duration of its life. The Grass Fed label by itself can refer To cows that started on a grass-fed diet, But were fed grain in the last few months of their lives In order to help them quickly gain weight. The beef that we bought doesn’t have these labels, But the labels are stamps of approval on beef that Holds more nutritional value And that is sourced more ethically and sustainably. We'll cut the beef first Cut out fatty parts from the beef This piece of meat is thinner there and thicker here, right? So we'll cut it to the same thickness Next, can you see the grain lined up horizontally? We'll cut it vertically through the center, against the grain These are beef tenderloins Just cut it like how I'm doing You might notice my dad referring to this as ngàuh láuh Ngàuh means beef, and láuh is a reference to a Chinese style Of cutting meat into long and thin pieces In Cantonese, láuh is another name for willow tree In which the leaves are similarly long and thin The English name for this dish is usually just Black Pepper Beef But the Chinese name, hāk jīu ngàuh láuh Makes it a point to distinguish exactly how the meat is cut This isn't always true, but there's a tendency in Chinese cuisine to slice the meat before serving, versus Western cuisine Where we typically slice the meat after it's cooked I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our Wonderful Patreon supporters to help bring this video to life. If you enjoy our videos and are interested in supporting us directly, Head on over to patreon.com/madewithlau to learn more! We've done cutting the meat Now, we'll use cold water to wash the meat So what's the benefit of this? This helps to wash off the blood from the meat Often, the meat is kept in the freezer After removing the blood, the meat will be clearer and won't smell bad This will also remove the odor from your fridge, you know? Okay, let's pour out the water We've finished cutting the meat Now, we'll prepare the sauce for the marinade For the marinade, we'll be mixing 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tbsp cornstarch 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp water 1 tbsp of Shaoxing wine, and 1 tbsp of red wine Today we’re using some red wine I want to add a bit of grape essence and sourness to the meat The taste will be very special You're welcome to try Of course, if you don't want to add it, that's okay too I'll add 1 tbsp red wine into the marinade That's all for the marinade, stir it evenly We've finished preparing the marinade Drain the water out of the meat first See？ Squeeze out that blood The bottom is full of blood The meat will taste better after we do this step A common misconception is that the red juice That leaks out from meat is blood, but it's not Most of the time, the blood has already Been drained by the time you buy it And the red juice is actually a result of Of freezing the meat during transport When you freeze meat, which is about 75% water The water inside the muscles expands into ice crystals Which rupture the muscle cells, and when the ice thaws It carries some myoglobin with it Myoglobin is an iron-rich protein that turns Bright red when it's exposed to oxygen The purpose of myoglobin is to store extra oxygen In muscles that are used for extended periods of time Interestingly enough, this is why not all meats are red or dark Beef and pork meat are red because Cows and pigs stand and roam almost all day In contrast, fish meat is mostly white With some red meat around the fins and tail Because fish float in water and they aren't Constantly using the bulk of their muscles Put all the meat into the marinade We'll use our hand to mix them all together To let the meat absorb the marinade We'll mix and massage the meat for about 30-60 seconds This helps the beef absorb the marinade and become more tender We've done marinating the beef Now, we'll start to cut the vegetables For our vegetables, we'll be mincing 2 cloves of garlic And slicing up a variety of bell peppers and red onion for color For each bell pepper, we'll only be using about 1/4 to 1/3 of each So if you'd rather just stick to one color And use up a whole entire bell pepper, that's fine too G Leong from Patreon asked Can you make this vegetarian? It can be done Which depends on what ingredients you used to cook You can use bell peppers like us and also mushrooms It's the same procedure Stephen from Patreon also asked What other variations of this dish can you do? You can use any kind of meat for this dish Black Pepper Pork Chop, Black Pepper Beef Any meat can be used to make this dish Black Pepper Fish, Black Pepper Shrimp That's okay too! As long as you like it He said yes Everything? Yeah, you can do pretty much a lot of meat I want this black pepper sauce on a bunch of noodles Yes, you can You doing it right now Try it out I am doing it (laugh) Okay, finished cutting If you add too many vegetables, does that add too much moisture? Yeah, you are right These veggies have high water content If you add too much, the dish will get soggy after cooked So it won't be good if adding too much veggie Next, we'll create the sauce for our black pepper beef We'll be mixing 1 tbsp cornstarch, 1 tbsp water 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce 1 tbsp red wine, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine. We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com Along with step-by-step instructions and video clips To guide you as you make the recipe at home Personally, I like to add lemon to our Shaoxing wine I like how it tastes It's okay if you don't add lemon to it, this is only my preference This is how I usually do at home Normally for home cooking, I'll add lemon to the wine after buying it It's best to add the lemon peels Okay, we'll stir the mixture well The beef should have finished marinating by now Before cooking, we'll add 2 tbsp oil to the beef This will help the meat to seal in the juices After cooking, the juices get trapped inside in the meat Mix the beef around for about 20-30 seconds to evenly coat the oil Then, we'll set our stove to high heat And let our wok heat up for about 2-3 minutes Once our wok is hot enough, we'll add about 2 tbsp of corn oil Or any oil with a high smoke point Until the oil is shimmering or forming ripples across the surface Next, we'll add the meat into the wok We'll let the beef cook for about 1 minute We'll keep stir-frying until the beef is almost cooked For New York steak, it doesn't need to be fully cooked All this meat, see? For this dish, you must stir-fry the meat and scoop them out first Then we’ll stir-fry the vegetables You must not add veggies to the beef and stir-fry them together That way, the beef won't taste good as it's overcooked You must scoop out the meat first before stir-frying the veggies Add the meat again after the veggies is cooked and mix them well This makes it taste great It turns color, right? Scoop it out The wok still has oil in it so we won't add more oil Add the garlic to the wok Let the garlic cook for about 20-30 seconds The garlic is cooked, can you smell the garlic aroma? Okay, let's add all the other vegetables into the wok Stir-fry them slowly Cook the veggies for about 90 seconds Okay, the veggies are almost cooked by now Now, we'll add the beef into the wok Let the beef cook for about 45-60 seconds Can you smell the aroma? Now, it's time to add the sauce into the wok After adding the slurry sauce, cook everything for another minute Notice that my dad didn't use the entire sauce Which was a judgment call that he made Since this recipe isn't supposed to have Too much sauce pooling at the bottom of the dish At last, we'll add 1 tsp sesame oil to the dish Black pepper is the star of the dish As it's called black pepper beef We'll use 1 tsp black pepper powder We sprinkle it slowly into the pan instead of pouring it all This is to ensure the black pepper powder is mixed evenly Cook and mix everything together for another minute Okay, let's have a taste to see if it's good Son, come on Is it good? Uh-huh Good! Okay! And finally, we'll plate our dish and call our loved ones over to eat The black pepper beef is cooked Let's eat Hong Doy, come eat! Will Hong Doy eat first? Hong Doy! We got ourselves a party tonight Cheers! Let's eat! Black Pepper Beef! Cam Cam, let's eat together So the number 1 question we have, 13 people asked this Including a Patreon member, shout out to G Leong What is the best cut of beef? For the best cut, my favorite is the New York steak The meat is not tough Even if you don't know how to stir-fry, New York steak won't be tough Somebody asked too, what is a good backup cut (of beef)? I think Daddy mentioned that a second option is tenderloin Tenderloin? Tenderloin, yeah This is our second most popular question From 2 Patreon members, Gwen, Belinda, and other people on Instagram How do you make this meat tender? If you follow restaurant practices, they'll add baking soda to the meat Oh, but you didn’t add it? Not today, because we were shorter on time and it takes longer. Even if I added baking soda We'd need to wait at least 30 min after adding baking soda For it to have an effect on the meat That's why I only massage them with my hands Before cooking the meat, add some oil to the meat and mix them well Using oil to coat the meat allows the juices to remain inside the meat So that the cooked meat is tender and not dry You can also massage the meat for a longer period of time One person asked, how do you not overcook it? Don't stir-fry it for too long How we did it is perfect, especially for this kind of steak When you eat steak, it's only medium-rare, medium, or medium-well. Beef does not need to be fully cooked, pork needs to be cooked longer How do you know if it's cooked? The moment it changes color. Originally, it's red in color When you cook it until it turns white, then it's cooked When you were cooking, you didn't add in all the sauce Yeah, I know How do you know when it's enough sauce? I already know the amount of sauce I added is enough for the dish So you don't want the dish to have too much sauce? Yeah If too much cornstarch is added, the dish will become very thick If it's thick, then the meat won't taste good, understand? So there shouldn't be any sauce at the bottom of the dish? Yeah, no sauce See if there's any sauce There won't be any even after you finish the dish Is there any sauce? Not really... No, it's pretty dry So somebody was asking about the black pepper Like what kind of black pepper you use? For this one, we just used regular black pepper But do restaurants use different kinds of black pepper? It's the same For people who use a black pepper grinder, that'll be spicier Can you add too much black pepper, does it ruin this dish？ Cause somebody is like I love black pepper I'm just gonna keep adding it Does it ruin the dish or can it handle a lot of pepper? It shouldn't be a problem, it all comes down to preferences If someone likes to add more then please go ahead, it's not a problem What if they use the black pepper sauce sold at the store? The black pepper sauce that's sold at the store? Are those good? Yeah, you can use that too But I never buy those kinds of sauce, I always make my own sauce The sauces you make taste better? It's not about the taste, just that I prefer the one I made I trust my own skills If you don't know how to make the sauce then you can just buy them I know how to make it so I won't buy it at the store It's expensive and a waste of money And it's not necessarily better than the sauce I make myself It's like making Char Siu, you can also just buy the sauce elsewhere You don't have to mix the char siu sauce by yourself But for daddy, he never buys any ready-made sauce Like for steaming fish, you can also buy a sauce for it But not for me, cause I like to make the sauce myself Is there a difference if you use fresh vs frozen meat for tenderizing? Mom, mom, mom Ba, Ba, Ba Yeh Yeh, Yeh Yeh! (Grandpa) ♪Laughter♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah Fresh beef is definitely better than frozen beef For frozen beef, you have to do it like me Wash it with water and squeeze it dry before marinating Is there anything - you have to wait until it's fully defrosted? Not necessarily I think if you want the meat to be cut easily It's best to cut it when it's half thawed, right? Yeah, the one I used is not fully defrosted too Yeah, actually when he cut it, it was half-frozen Okay Half frozen is easier to cut to the way you want You have more control of the size of the meat slices In a half-frozen state, you can control how big, thin, long, and short So, is it maybe ideal…? Ba, Ba, Ba Yeh Yeh, Yeh Yeh! (Grandpa) So is it maybe ideal to get a fresh piece of meat, And then start freezing it just a little bit to make it easier to cut? No! ♪Laughter♪ Because what can I do? I can cut the fresh meat just fine He said, "I can cut anything" ♪Laughter♪ What about for Randy? Should he freeze it a little bit? It's not necessary, just cut it slowly He said no, just cut slowly Slowly cut the meat into small slices I can cut it in one go But in your case, it'll take a few more tries to cut it I can cut it down in one movement And you just need to cut a few more times, right? It's just as good, no problem Are you gonna cook this dish for your dad? I mean, yeah ♪Laughter♪ Cam Cam is laughing at you ♪Laughter♪ Laughing at your dad? ♪Laughter♪ He's teasing Daddy! ♪Laughter♪ He said, “Yeah right!" (laugh) ♪Laughter♪ Good joke, Dad! ♪Laughter♪ So cute! ♪Laughter♪ Hong Doy is awesome! Hong Doy is awesome! Hello, dear friends and audience! Thank you!
