Stir Fry Velvet Beef and Asparagus is a wonderful blend of seasonal asparagus and velvety smooth stir fried beef, coated with a slightly spicy sauce. The meat is tenderized using a process called velveting, which gives the beef that soft tender taste you find in your favorite Chinese restaurant. Served with rice it’s a fabulously colorful and delicious dinner. If there are any leftovers, those are pretty incredible too!
Stir Fry Velevet Beef and Asparagus
It’s asparagus season and every store I go to has bright green aspagagus, standing like posing models bunched together just waiting to take a walk down the runway to my stomach. I wanted to come up with a recipe that’s worthy of the statuesque stalks, and decided to include them in a beef stir fry, specifically Stir Fry Velvet Beef and Asaparagus.
Making Stir Fry Velevet Beef and Asparagus
After determining that I was going to create a recipe for Beef and Asparagus, I decided to do a little scientific experiment with a tecnique that I had read about called “velveting”.
What is Velveting?
According to Masterclass:“Velveting is a method of marinating tough cuts of meat in either a cornstarch or baking soda mixture to create a supple texture without altering the flavor. Home cooks typically rely on this process for tenderizing beef that is especially fibrous—like the brisket, round, chuck, and shank—but it is also effective on chicken and pork. Take-out Chinese food restaurants in the United States often use velveted meat to make various dishes like Mongolian beef, beef fried rice, and beef stir-fry.”I also contacted my favorite Meat Master, the King of Beef, restaurant owner and beef expert, Mr. Bosh Bosnack.
Discussing beef with Bosh
Bosh is to beef what an an astrophysicist is to astronomy. I know I’m not an expert on beef, I wholly acknowledge that, but every time I speak to Bosh I realize how much I don’t know. It’s kind of funny.
Asking Bosh about Velveting
Here was our conversation:
Trying the two different meat velveting techniques: Water velveting and Baking Soda.
The Bosh/Serious Eats Water Bath Velveting method
Trying the Baking Soda Method of Beef Velveting
Velveting beef with baking soda. I love how simple the whole process was and how un-patchkie like it was.
Every post I read stated how important it was to thoroughly rinse the beef, make sure the beef was dry before frying and that the oil was very hot before adding the beef.
Stir Fried Velveted Beef using the baking soda method. It ended up being soft, tender and delicious – even if it was the wrong cut of beef.
And now for the rest of the recipe for Stir Fry Velvet Beef and Asparagus
Now back to the star of the show, the asparagus!
I cut this asparagus into two inch diagonal slices and called it a day. Asparagus cooks pretty quickly in stir fries so the major effort was in washing and cutting it. Which was pretty simple.
Stir Fry Velvet Beef and Asparagus with the gorgeous green, crispy asparagus. She’s definitely the start of the show!
The other interesting ingredient is the water chestnuts. While doing my fly through Sarah’s Tent to get some inappropriate beef for the recipe, I walked through the aisles to check out what’s new and exciting.
I really was looking for another ingredient that they didn’t have, and came across water chestnuts. My Mother (z”l) used to put water chestnuts in a whole bunch of dishes, and I really like them for their crunch. They don’t add a lot of flavor, but seem to take on the flavor of the sauce of the dish they’re in.
Kind of like a chameleon vegetable.
In Stir Fry Velvet Beef and Asparagus the water chestnuts as a satisfying crunchy texture to the dish.
Making the sauce for the Stir Fry Velvet Beef and Asparagus
Some of the recipes I found for making Stir Fried Beef and Asparagus used Rice Wine.
I don’t have rice wine. I wasn’t buying rice wine. I have white wine. I did a Google search, and found that white wine was a fine substitution for rice wine.
The white wine went into the sauce, along with one of my favorite sauces of all time – Lachoy Sweet Chili Sauce. It’s not too spicy, but give just the right amount of mild heat that kicks a stir fry up a notch.
Love this sauce, and it’s gluten free too!
In the end Dear Husband loved the Stir Fry Velvet Beef and Asparagus and ate the whole display plate – without the plate…and Dear Husband loves me too a little more.
Here’s the recipe for Stir Fry Velvet Beef and Asparagus
As with any Kosher Everyday recipe, don’t sweat the small stuff.
If you feel that the whole process of velveting the beef is just too much, and one more step is likely to put you over the edge. Just. Don’t. Do. It.
Additionally, although this is an asparagus post, you can make this dish throughout the year using either frozen asparagus or another vegetable like broccoli. It would be absolutely delicious!
Stir Fry Velvet Beef and Asparagus is extra pretty with sesame seeds sprinkled on top!
Stir Fry Velvet Beef and Asparagus
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Beef Velveting Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 75 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stir Fry
- Cuisine: Gluten Free
- Diet: Kosher
Description
Stir Fry Velvet Beef and Asparagus is a wonderful blend of seasonal asparagus and velvety smooth stir fried beef, coated with a slightly spicy sauce. The meat is tenderized using a process called velveting, which gives the beef that soft tender taste you find in your favorite Chinese restaurant. Served with rice it’s a fabulously colorful and delicious dinner. If there are any leftovers, those are pretty incredible too!
Ingredients
For the Beef Velveting
- 1 pound chuck steak thinly sliced to 1/8-inch
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
For the Sauce
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
For the Stir Fry
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon garlic oil or 1 tablespoon avocado oil plus 1 clove minced garlic (add the garlic with the ginger)
- 1 pound of asparagus, cut diagonally into 2-inch pieces
- 1 large red pepper, thinly sliced
- 1 (8-ounce) can whole water chestnuts, drained, chestnuts cut in half
- 1 cup green onion, sliced diagonally (around 4 large)
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
- white sesame seeds for garnish
- Cooked rice for serving.
Instructions
For the Beef Velveting
- In a medium bowl, massage the baking soda into the beef. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes. Do not allow the beef to rest longer than that or it will alter the makeup of the beef.
- Rinse the baking soda off of the beef, then pat dry.
For the Sauce
- While the beef is resting in the refrigerator, prepare the sauce.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the wine, soy sauce, chili sauce, toasted sesame oil and corn starch until completely blended and no lumps are visible. Set aside.
For the Stir Fry
- Heat a large wok over a medium/high flame until hot. Add the toasted sesame oil and garlic oil/avocado oil and heat the oil until it shimmers in the pan.
- Stir fry the dry beef in the hot oil until its lightly browned, then add in the asparagus and cook for around a minute stirring constantly.
- Add in the red pepper, water chestnuts and fresh ginger (and garlic if using) tossing to combine.
- Pour the sauce over the stir fry and cook until the sauce is no longer cloudy and thickened.
- Stir in the green onions.
- Serve the Stir Fry Velvet Beef and Asparagus over hot cooked rice garnished with sesame seeds.
Equipment
La Choy Sweet Chili Stir Fry Sauce & Marinade
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Swiss Diamond Cast-Aluminum Nonstick 14-Inch 6-2/7-Quart Wok with Lid
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If velveting the beef is intimidating, you can skip this step.
I understand that not everyone has garlic oil, so there is a substitution of one tablespoon of avocado oil plus one clove minced fresh garlic. Please add the garlic at the same time as the minced ginger.
You can make this dish year round using frozen asparagus or frozen broccoli. Make sure to completely defrost the vegetables and drain out any liquid before using.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 434
- Sugar: 6.2 g
- Sodium: 891.9 mg
- Fat: 21.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 5.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 17.1 g
- Fiber: 4.2 g
- Protein: 40.2 g
- Cholesterol: 122.4 mg
Stir Fry Velvet Beef with Asparagus is one of the best, seasonal dinners I’ve ever had! Dear Husband loved it (and me!) too!!!
Here’s how I made Stir Fry Velvet Beef and Asparagus in Instagram @koshereveryday
View this post on Instagram
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