Chinese dishes are very different from the menu of Russian cuisine. The Chinese are eager to eat less salt, so a recipe for meat in sweet and sour sauce has appeared in the country. This method of cooking pork or beef in Russia is called meat in Chinese.
Description of sweet and sour sauce
Sourness replaces salt in dishes. Sour foods do not require it so much. Moreover, the sweetening of the second course also gives it a taste that does not require the addition of salty ingredients.
To ensure a sour taste, acids are added to the meat: apple and rice vinegar and others. Sweetness is provided by vegetable ingredients: onions, bell peppers. Sugar is also added.
Before frying, the meat is kept in soy sauce, that is, it is pickled, which increases its salinity. No more salt is required.
A variety of Chinese meat recipes
There are really a lot of recipes. They are very different from each other in ingredients. But a characteristic feature is the sweet and sour taste. Moreover, in order to cook real tasty meat in Chinese, it is necessary to strictly observe the cooking technology and the amount of certain ingredients.
It often turns out to be impossible to indicate in the recipe, for example, the amount of sugar required, because in each case vegetables with different contents of glucose and fructose are found. A good chef needs to know exactly how the taste of a national dish should turn out, and create it using a variety of ingredients.
What is meat rope
In Russia, they try to cook meat so that it turns out soft. Therefore, they cut it, chopping the fibers. Chinese-style meat is always cut along the fibers so that the pieces retain their shape. The thickness of the short “ropes” is about 1 centimeter.
Chinese-style meat is necessarily filled with sweet and sour sauce prepared by a specialist.
Cooking a national dish
How to cook meat in Chinese? If the hostess has a good taste and knows how to distinguish dishes created by professional chefs, then she can try to cook meat in sweet and sour sauce.
A feature of the preparation is that the ingredients are fried separately from each other, and then combined in one dish and continue to stew.
Another interesting fact is that the Chinese fried meat twice. First, deep-fried to close the meat pores. As a result, natural juices do not come out of the product, that is, pork or beef is juicier. Then the fried meat is rolled in starch and fried again until a brown layer is formed.
Chinese Sweet Meat Recipe
Necessary products: for 1 kilogram of pork or beef, 350 g of string beans, a pound of onion, 300 g of sweet pepper, 8 cloves of garlic, 150 g of potato starch, rice vinegar, soy sauce, red pepper, sunflower oil are needed.
Cooking process. Cut the meat into elongated slices, pepper and marinate for 1 hour.
For marinade: soy sauce, rice vinegar and 4 cloves of garlic.
- Roll pork or beef well in potato starch and fry until tender in vegetable oil, which must be poured into a pan about 100 ml.
- Chop sweet peppers and onions in long slices and fry separately from each other. Prepare the beans separately.
- Put vegetables in the meat and pour the dish with Chinese sauce. To prepare it, mix soy sauce with red pepper and 4 cloves of garlic, minced garlic.
Meat with vegetables
The Chinese appreciate the benefits of vegetables, so they try to cook hearty dishes using such useful ingredients as bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and various roots.
To prepare meat in Chinese with vegetables, you will need: 400 g of pork, carrots, onions, sweet pepper (1 pc.), Half celery root, ginger root (10 g), 2 cloves of garlic, soy sauce, lemon juice, oil.
Cooking process: marinate pieces of meat (soak for about half an hour).
Marinade: 60 ml of soy sauce, 15 ml of lemon juice, 1 tsp. potato starch, chopped ginger.
- Fry vegetables with celery root, chopped in straws, in oil.
- Then cook meat in the same oil: hold over high heat until a golden brown layer appears, and then stew for 5 minutes along with vegetables and sauce prepared for the marinade.
Meat with vegetables and honey
There are many recipes for Chinese meat with vegetables. In each province of China, dishes are slightly different from each other. And even in the same province, several recipes are famous. But all the variations are united by a spicy sauce that has a sweet flavor, which, in turn, can also be different.
Ingredients for a Chinese meat recipe with honey: kilogram of pork or beef; carrots, onions and sweet peppers (2 pcs.), 4 tbsp. l potato starch, 60 ml of soy sauce, 2 tbsp. l honey.
Cooking process: Pork or beef, cut into elongated slices, hold in the marinade.
For marinade: honey and soy sauce. Keep meat in honey sauce for at least 30 minutes.
- Next, fry all prepared vegetables. We start with onions. Then we add carrots to it, and then sweet pepper. Everything should be chopped up.
- In the same oil, cook the meat, after laying the vegetables on a plate. Remove the meat from the marinade and squeeze. Then fry well until cooked. Put the vegetables back in the pan. The meat is ready in Chinese.
Beef Tomato Recipe
Chinese beef can be cooked with tomatoes.
Ingredients: 1 kilogram of meat, 5 tomatoes, 2 onions, 2 tbsp. l potato starch, ginger, hot pepper, 50 ml of soy sauce, cooking oil.
Cooking Chinese:
- Prepare the marinating sauce: add hot pepper and potato starch to the soy sauce.
- Hold the beef in the sauce for about an hour, and then cook on the fire: first fry, and then stew until cooked.
- Peel the tomatoes, crumble coarsely. Fry in oil with onion and crushed ginger. Put the meat for this on a plate.
- Put the meat again in the pan, mix with vegetables and continue to simmer for about 5 minutes.
About the side dish for meat
The meat is served in Chinese, usually with crisp rice. To prepare such a side dish, long-grain rice is needed.
It does not boil like porridge. Such rice absorbs less water during cooking, so liquids need to be poured in the following proportion: 380 ml of water per 1 cup of rice.
It is better to cook a side dish under a tightly closed lid, so that the top of the dish is also boiled. A pressure cooker or a real cauldron are the best cookware options for making friable rice. The pressure cooker does not need to be kept under pressure, just close the lid so that there are no gaps.
Seasoning can be added to rice water. Garlic, fried onions, tomato paste are well suited. Or you can prefer the sweet ingredients: carrots, green peas, corn. Salt should be allowed into the water so that it seems a little salted. Excess salt will go into the rice when cooking.
If rice is chosen clean, from expensive packages, then you can pre-hold it in vegetable oil in a pan with mild heating. Krupa absorbs oil. Such processed rice will not boil in water. Of course, you do not need to wash fried rice either before or after frying. Cooking side dish on the fire - exactly 20 minutes. Then the rice should stand for another 10 minutes. It continues to soften under a tightly closed lid. That is, it is not necessary to open the cauldron immediately after turning off the fire.
When preparing a loose side dish for the first time, it is better to pour a little more liquid: 400 ml of water per 1 cup of cereal. With this ratio of components, there is no need to worry that the rice will burn. It is only important to ensure that moisture does not evaporate with a thick stream of steam from the dishes with the upcoming side dish.
Russian people love interesting news in their own menu. But not all foreign dishes are to your taste. Chinese meat is usually liked by Russian citizens, even if they try it for the first time. However, if the family is not used to eating spicy, then pepper can not be put at all. Sweet and sour sauce is an oriental novelty on the menu of many Russians.