Father Brought Back a Recipe

My father travelled a great deal. He had spent his youth in China as an overseas student and graduated in 1937 with a degree in Economics and Journalism from the Yen Ching University in Beijing. He had worked in Singapore and Kuching and had travelled all over Sarawak including some of the most remote areas. He probably had a lot of curiosity in life as could be seen from the doodles and sketchings he made while he was travelling, and the loads of black and white pictures he took with his great Roliflex camera (which is still kept by my mother). That camera is little over 67 years old now as he bought it when he was in Singapore before the Japanese dropped their first bombs in Sarawak.

One day he taught my mother a new way of cooking beef after he returned from Singapore. Naturally we children were delighted. Here is the recipe

Black Pepper Beef Steak

Ingredients

4 pieces of 400 gm beef steaks(Most food outlets give 200 gram beef steaks)
4 Tbsp black pepper,nicely pounded
2 tsp corn starch
1 Bombay Onion sliced finely
2 Tbsp black soy sauce
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp of good wine or Port


Method

1. Pound the beef slightly with the back of a Chinese chopper.
2. Marinade the beef with butter,black pepper, corn starch and black soy sauce for about an hour.
3. Drain the marinade from the beef.
4. Heat up a thick pan and add the cooking oil. Slowly cook the beef slices, one at a time for best effect.
5. Place the beef steaks in a warm dish.
6. When all four pieces are done, put the marinade back into the pan with the onions and cook slowly until it thickens.
7. Pour the sauce over the beef steaks.

Serve beef steaks with mashed potatoes, a salad and a nice soup.

Note: if you prefer less beef as the main dish, just slice half of the beef thinly. Follow the rest of the recipe and you will have a nice Chinese stir fry.