Exotic Asian cuisine has become the progenitor of meat in sweet and sour sauce. Today, recipes adapted to the usual ingredients are used. A successful combination of flavors of beef and sweet and sour sauce makes the dish spicy, literally melting in the mouth.
Classic recipe
6 servings - this recipe is designed for so much. It takes 45 minutes to cook beef in sweet and sour sauce with vegetables.
The following components are needed:
- 300 grams of tender beef meat;
- 1 small onion;
- 2 eggplants;
- 2 carrots
- 2 peppers (1 Bulgarian and 1 chili);
- 1 tomato;
- tomato paste (3-4 tablespoons will be enough);
- apple cider vinegar (in order not to spoil the dish, do not add more than 2 tbsp. l.);
- 1 tbsp flour and potato starch;
- soy sauce (it depends on how seasoned your dish is, you do not need to add more than 70 ml);
- 2 tbsp. l Sahara;
- vegetable oil.
Classic beef cooking steps
The recipe for beef in sweet and sour sauce includes the following cooking steps:
- First of all, you need to prepare all the necessary products, thoroughly washing vegetables and meat under running water. The meat should be cut into not very large elongated pieces. Thanks to such slicing, the dish will turn out to be very tender.
- In a separate bowl, mix the starch and flour, and then pour the beef with the prepared mixture. Then you need to pour the beef with soy sauce, mixing thoroughly so that the ingredients are well combined. Leave on for 20 minutes to marinate the meat.
- This time can be spent on preparing vegetables. First of all, you need to cut the eggplants into cubes, and then fry them in a pan in a small amount of oil. Stir eggplant from time to time so that it does not stick.
- Chop bell pepper. The use of this vegetable is necessary to give the sauce a special flavor.
- By preparing carrots is meant the need to chop it with straws.
- Onion must be finely chopped. Using this ingredient allows you to make the meat more juicy, rewarding it with an incredibly rich taste.
- It is important that the tomatoes are cut larger than the rest of the vegetables, because this can guarantee a longer preservation of their original form. Chili pepper is cut into thin half rings.
- To eggplants, which have already acquired the desired golden color, you need to add in turn pepper, carrot, prepared onions, chopped tomatoes and chili peppers. During this time, the vegetables will start up juice, and also fry a little.
- The next step is the preparation of meat. To do this, you need to heat the oil in a pan and put the meat in it, previously pickled in soy sauce, into it. It is very necessary to fry the beef so that it acquires a beautiful rosy color.
- Combine the fried meat with stewed vegetables and continue to fry for about another 10 minutes. To get a richer flavor, you need to season the dish with tomato paste. It is not worth adding salt to the dish, as the meat has already received the right amount of salt from soy sauce. The beef and sour-frying pan should be covered and stewed for 10 minutes.
As a side dish, rice, spaghetti or mashed potatoes are perfect.
Chinese beef
This spicy beef in sweet and sour sauce in Chinese will be the perfect complement to both a daily diet and a festive feast.
For 6 servings you will need the following ingredients:
- 0.4 kg of beef;
- 2 small onions (or 1 large);
- 70 grams of prunes (it turns out about 11-12 pieces);
- 120 grams of dried apricots;
- medium bell pepper;
- 50 grams of butter;
- 1 cup apple juice
- greens (commonly used parsley);
- black pepper (choose freshly ground).
Chinese beef cooking steps
It takes an hour and a half to prepare this gourmet dish.
- Initially, you need to start preparing dried fruits, pouring them cool water for an hour. After this time has passed, you need to drain the water and dry with a paper towel the berries that have already accumulated water. Then chop dried apricots with prunes in small pieces.
- Rinse the pepper thoroughly, peel it from the seeds, and then cut into thin strips. At this time, parsley should be washed well, and then dried and chopped finely.
- Rinse the beef thoroughly and then dry with a paper towel. After the specified manipulation, it must be cut into portioned slices. To cook beef in sweet and sour sauce according to this recipe, the meat should be beaten very slightly, grated with pepper and salt to taste.
- We put meat and finely chopped onions in a hot pan. When the meat has acquired a golden crust, it must be transferred to the roasting pan, add the prepared ingredients and pour the juice. Simmer for about an hour by setting a small fire.
Pineapple meat with aromatic sweet and sour sauce
This delicious dish belongs to Chinese cuisine. Moreover, the menu of traditional Chinese restaurants certainly contains beef with pineapple in sweet and sour sauce. His recipe is so simple that any housewife can easily cope with it.
To prepare the dish, you need the following ingredients:
- 800 g of beef;
- 0.3 kg canned pineapple;
- tomato paste (not more than 5 tablespoons);
- a tablespoon of starch;
- 2 tsp vinegar
- soy sauce;
- seasoning to taste (salt with pepper is usually used);
- vegetable oil.
Stages of cooking meat with pineapple
- The preparation of meat is the most important stage, which suggests that it must be thoroughly washed and the film removed from its surface. After you need to cut the beef into small pieces, about 2-3 cm each. In a separate bowl, mix the meat with flour, starch and soy sauce. Leave on for 20 minutes to marinate.
- From the jar with pineapples, drain the juice and rinse the fruit slices a little, then fry them for 2-3 minutes.
- Now we begin to fry the meat. As soon as the appetizing crust appears on the beef, turn off the heat.
- The next step in cooking beef in sweet and sour sauce is to make the sauce. To do this, in a separate container, you need to mix sugar, tomato paste and the amount of vinegar specified in the components, and then this mass must be poured onto the meat and add the fried pineapples. After adding spices, simmer the meat for about 15 minutes.
A small recommendation for those who like spicy sauce: you need to add finely chopped bell pepper to it. In Chinese restaurants, sesame seeds are often sprinkled with meat; you can also take this simple tip.
Reviews
According to reviews, beef in sweet and sour sauce has a unique taste. It can be eaten as an independent dish, served with a side dish or wrapped in pita bread. Mistresses advise using a beef shovel for cooking . Then the dish will be more tender.