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Cut meat and vegetables evenly and prepare everything beforehand. Use Chinese five-spice powder for seasoning and marinate less tender cuts of beef. Cut meat across the grain into small pieces and add vegetables with longer cooking times first. Finish with a stock-based sauce and serve immediately.
The best tips for frying meat with vegetables include cutting the food into as even pieces as possible and preparing everything before starting the cooking process. If time is limited, many supermarkets sell pre-washed and sliced fresh vegetables. With all the cleaning and mincing already done, the only preparation left is to cut and perhaps marinate the meat based on its tenderness. Another quick step in sauteing meat with vegetables is to use Chinese five-spice powder for seasoning.
Chinese five-spice powder, which contains Szechuan peppercorns, fennel seeds, cloves, anise, and cinnamon, can lend a rich Asian flavor to a beef stir-fry. It can be used to stir stir-fry vegetables and meats and/or as a marinade for beef. When using a very tender cut of beef such as a barbecued steak, the marinating step can be skipped. With beef steak or less tender cuts, leaving the cut strips of meat in a marinade in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight can create much-needed tenderness. A good marinade can be made by combining orange juice, soy sauce, honey, and Chinese five spice powder and/or other spices.
All cuts of meat used for stir-fry beef with vegetables should be cut across the grain into small pieces. Slicing meat this way helps reduce chewing. It’s also important to cut the meat into small bite-sized pieces to add at the end of the cooking time for the other ingredients. In this way, the beef stir-fry with vegetables should be cooked evenly without the meat being overcooked. Overcooking beef slices can make them tough and chewy despite marinating or slicing the meat across the grain.
Vegetable chunks that require the longest cooking time such as onions should be added first to the oil heated in the wok or heavy skillet. Keeping vegetables thinly sliced or in small pieces can significantly reduce cooking time. Having vegetables in separate prep bowls ready to go is a must when frying. This allows the cook to quickly choose and efficiently add ingredients in the order required for cooking.
A stock-and-seasoning-based sauce that is allowed to simmer before a cornstarch and water paste is added to thicken is the perfect finishing touch to the beef stir-fry with vegetables. The sauce and stir-fry can be delicious when served with cooked rice or noodles. A good tip to remember is to always serve the fry immediately, as it tends to be at its best while still piping hot.
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