Beef Chow Fun (乾炒牛河)

Beef chow fun is a famous Cantonese dish combining wide rice noodles with tender sliced beef. Several years ago, I posted a chicken chow fun recipe using the same noodles. While this is not exactly an "upgrade," this recipe improves upon it with a better marinade inspired by Pei-Mei, and a sauce to tie it all together. This is also a companion recipe to my chow mein recipe from a few weeks ago. Grandpa and grandma would often serve us both in one meal! The name qianchao niu he is interesting. The first part - qianchao means "dry fried," similar to dry-cooked string beans. I'm not sure of the history of this dish, but this name may suggest the beef was originally deep fried. The rest of the name refers to beef (niu) and the wide noodles (he fen) in the dish. I was very happy with how this turned out, but in retrospect, this recipe makes a lot of food. I would probably halve everything next time, but there's nothing wrong with having some leftovers. 

I took the recipe for the beef from "Sliced Beef with Broccoli" in Pei-Mei Volume II. She tosses the beef with some blanched gailan (Chinese broccoli) and a sauce. The beef is phenomenal on its own, and I would happily gobble it up with some rice. When I cook flank steak whole, I typically pan fry it to medium rare to avoid drying it out. Here, the thinly sliced beef is cooked through completely, yet remains super tender. The key is the marinade, which includes baking soda as a tenderizer. If you've never tried this technique before, it will amaze you.

This recipe uses mostly pantry staples and easily found ingredients. The noodles can sometimes be hard to find, though. Rice noodles come in many shapes and sizes. I previously used the super-thin kind for minced "pigeon" lettuce cups. Medium-width rice noodles are used for pad thai. The widest rice, called shahe fen (sometimes transliterated ho fun), are essential to this dish. Part of the problem is that this usually doesn't appear on the package and, unless you know the Chinese word (沙河粉), you'll have to eyeball it. Although dark soy sauce is not typically added at the end of stir frying like it is here, it's essential to achieving the signature brown look for the noodles. Classic beef chow fun usually has mung bean sprouts, which are tragically not sold in Vermillion. I included napa and onion instead, which also makes this into more of a complete meal.

Ingredients

Sliced Beef

• 1 lb. flank steak, or similar cut (skirt, hanger, flap)
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1 Tbs. light soy sauce
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 4 tsp. corn starch
• 2 Tbs. water
• 2 Tbs. vegetable oil

Noodles and Vegetables

• 1 lb. dry shahe fen (ho fun / wide rice noodles)
• 1 lb. napa cabbage
• 1/2 lb. yellow onion (about 1/2 large onion)
• 4 green onions
• Salt
• Vegetable oil

Sauce

• 2 Tbs. Shaoxing wine or Amontillado
• 1 1/2 Tbs. dark soy sauce
• 3 Tbs. light soy sauce
• 1 tsp. sugar
• Splash of sesame oil

Instructions

About 2 hours before cooking, immerse the noodles in warm (not boiling) water. About 1 hour before cooking, thinly slice the flank steak across the grain. To make more manageable pieces, I cut the steak in half along the grain first. Mix up the marinade (sugar, soy sauce, baking soda, corn starch, water, and oil) and combine with the sliced steak in a  shallow dish or bag. Toss to coat and set aside to marinate.

After setting the beef aside, roughly chop the napa. Place in a large bowl, salt generously, and toss to coat. Set aside while the beef marinates. Cut the onion to a large dice. Cut the green onion into 1-inch pieces, and slice each in half lengthwise. Before cooking, use a clean dish towel to wring water out of the napa in batches. Chop the napa a few more times. 

Heat some oil in a wok on as high heat as possible. Stir fry the beef in batches, making sure not to crowd the pan, until all the beef is browned. This is important, so do not rush this process. I did four batches. Add oil as needed. Set the beef aside when done.

Still over high heat, add more oil and the chopped napa and onion. Stir fry until softened and lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Set aside. 

Before continuing, combine the sauce ingredients (Shaoxing wine, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, and sugar) in a bowl and stir together. Drain the noodles. Heat more oil in the wok on high heat. Add the noodles, shaking off excess water before dropping them in. Stir fry a few minutes, until heated through. Use tongs to toss the noodles and a spatula to scrape the pan. Add the sauce and continue tossing to coat the noodles.

Add the beef, vegetables, and chopped green onion. Toss another minute to integrate everything. Drizzle a little sesame oil, toss one more time, and transfer to a serving platter.