Onion Pepper Beef

You'll see this dish occasionally in restaurants and buffets, but not as often as I think this dish deserves. It's a good dish to start with for cooking Chinese food as it's fairly straight forward and needing only a few ingredients.You might think of it as a Chinese pepper steak with onions.

3/4-1 pound flank steak, cut thinly across the grain

Steak Marinade
1 tablespoon ShaoHsing wine
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger

Oil for passing,  about 1 1/2 cups for a round bottomed wok, 2-3 cups for a flat bottom wok


Oil for stir frying, about 1 tablespoon
1 onion sliced julienne
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2-3 green onions sliced thinly on the bias
sugar,  pinch
freshly ground black pepper to taste
Splash of soy sauce as desired


Prepare the steak. If you're not using a steak already pre-proportioned, then section it as follows.

Cut the flank steak in approximate thirds along the grain.

Wrap the other two pieces of steak in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze for other use.

Slice thinly across the grain.

Combine the beef strips with the marinade ingredients and let marinade about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the ingredients. Cut the onion in half from root end to sprout end. Peel off the dried skin. This particular onion has a bit of a bad section  I'll need to trim out. The rest of the onion is fine.

Now cut the half into quarters, again from root to sprout end.

Slice along the tall sections for about 3 slices. Then flip the onion so what was the bottom is now vertical and slice it again 3 or so times, repeating the flip every few cuts. This produces the most even julienne working with the natural form and layers of the onion.

Repeat with the other half of the onion

Slice the green onions on the bias and set aside. 

Have the sugar, pepper and soy sauce at hand

Heat the oil in the wok for passing, between 275 and 300 works well.

Drain off any excess marinade from the beef. Add the beef to the oil stirring to separate the individual slices of beef. Cook just until all the pink is no longer visible. Remove the beef and drain well. Pour the hot oil into a safe container to cool. I usually use a sauce pan on the stove for holding the hot oil, pouring through a fine strainer to catch any bits of food. I'll reuse this oil a few times. Wipe out the wok, there is too much oil still on the surface for the rest of the stir fry in my opinion

Return the wok to the heat, turning the heat to high. When the wok is hot, add the tablespoon of oil to the wok, drizzling it around the sides to give the best distribution of oil to the wok. 

Add the onions and stir fry until they just begin to soften. Add the garlic and return the beef to the wok. Stir fry adding sugar and black pepper. Be generous with the pepper. Then add the green onions, toss a few times to heat everything up. Drizzle a little soy in and serve immediately.

You may see this dish with julienne bell peppers as well. That too is a good dish.