Tender beef in sweet and sour sauce: cooking features, recipes and reviews

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Exotic Asian cuisine has become the progenitor of meat in sweet and sour sauce. Today, recipes adapted to the usual ingredients are used. The successful combination of beef flavors and sweet and sour sauce makes the dish savory, literally melting in your mouth.

Classic recipe

6 servings - that's how much this recipe is designed for. It takes 45 minutes to cook beef in sweet and sour sauce with vegetables.

The following components are needed:

• 300 grams of tender beef meat;
• 1 small onion;
• 2 eggplant;
• 2 carrots,
• 2 peppers (1 bell pepper and 1 chili);
• 1 tomato;
• tomato paste (3-4 tablespoons will be enough);
• apple cider vinegar (to avoid spoiling the dish, do not add more than 2 tablespoons);
• 1 tbsp each flour and potato starch;
• soy sauce (depends on how seasoned your dish will be, no need to add more than 70 ml);
• 2 tbsp. l. sugar;
• vegetableoil.

Steps of cooking beef according to the classic recipe

Sweet and sour beef recipe includes the following cooking steps:

1. The first step is to prepare all the necessary products by thoroughly washing vegetables and meat under running water. The meat must be cut into not very large elongated pieces. It is thanks to such cutting that the dish will turn out to be very tender.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the starch and flour, and then pour the beef with the prepared mixture. Then you need to pour the beef with soy sauce, mixing thoroughly so that the ingredients are well connected to each other. Leave for 20 minutes to marinate the meat.
3. This time can be spent preparing vegetables. First of all, you need to cut the eggplant into cubes, and then fry them in a pan with a small amount of oil. Stir the eggplant from time to time so that they do not burn.
4. Cut the bell pepper. The use of this vegetable is necessary to give the sauce a special flavor.
5. Preparing a carrot means chopping it into strips.
6. The onion must be finely chopped. The use of this ingredient makes the meat more juicy, rewarding it with an incredibly rich taste.
7. It is important that the tomatoes are cut larger than other vegetables, because this way you can ensure that they retain their original appearance for a longer time. Chili pepper cut into thin half rings.
8. To eggplants that have already acquired the desired golden color, you need to add pepper, carrot,prepared onions, chopped tomatoes and chili peppers. During this time, the vegetables will release juice and also roast a little.
9. The next step is to cook the meat. To do this, heat the oil in a frying pan and put the meat, previously marinated in soy sauce, into it. You need to cook the beef very well so that it acquires a beautiful ruddy color.
10. Combine the fried meat with stewed vegetables and continue to fry for about 10 more minutes. To get a richer flavor, season the dish with tomato paste. At the same time, you should not add s alt to the dish, since the meat has already received the right amount of s alt from the soy sauce. Cover the pan with beef in sweet and sour sauce and simmer for 10 minutes.

Rice, spaghetti or mashed potatoes are great as a side dish.

Chinese Beef

This spicy Chinese-style beef in sweet and sour sauce is a great addition to your daily diet or holiday feast.

For 6 servings you will need the following ingredients:

• 0.4 kg beef;
• 2 small onions (or 1 large);
• 70 grams of prunes (this makes about 11-12 pieces);
• 120 grams dried apricots;
• medium bell pepper;
• 50 grams of butter;
• 1 glass of apple juice;
• greens (parsley is commonly used);
• black pepper (choose freshly ground).

Chinese beef cooking steps

ForThis delicious dish will take an hour and a half to prepare.

1. Initially, you need to start preparing dried fruits by pouring cool water over them for an hour. After this time has passed, you need to drain the water and dry the berries that have already collected water with a paper towel. Then cut dried apricots with prunes into small pieces.



2. Rinse the pepper thoroughly, peel it from the seeds, and then cut into thin strips. At this time, parsley should be washed well, and then dried and finely chopped.
3. Rinse the beef flesh thoroughly and then dry it with a paper towel. After this manipulation, it must be cut into portioned pieces. To cook beef in sweet and sour sauce according to this recipe, the meat should be beaten off quite a bit, grated with pepper and s alt to taste.
4. Put the meat and finely chopped onion into a hot frying pan. When the meat has acquired a golden crust, it must be transferred to a roasting pan, add the prepared ingredients and pour over the juice. Simmer for about an hour, setting a small fire.

Meat with pineapples in fragrant sweet and sour sauce

This is a very tasty Chinese dish. Moreover, the menu of traditional Chinese restaurants always includes beef with pineapples in sweet and sour sauce. Its recipe is so simple that any housewife can easily cope with it.

To prepare the dish you will need the following ingredients:

• 800g beef;
• 0.3kgcanned pineapple;
• tomato paste (no more than 5 tablespoons);
• tablespoon starch;
• 2 tsp vinegar;
• soy sauce;
• seasoning to taste (usually s alt and pepper are used);
• vegetable oil.

Steps of cooking meat with pineapple

1. Preparing the meat is the most important step, which implies that it must be thoroughly washed and the film removed from its surface. After you need to cut the beef into small pieces, about 2-3 cm each. In a separate bowl, mix the meat with flour, starch and soy sauce. Leave for 20 minutes to marinate.
2. Drain the juice from a jar of pineapple and rinse the pieces of fruit a little, then fry them for 2-3 minutes.
3. Now let's start roasting the meat. As soon as a delicious crust appears on the beef, turn off the fire.
4. The next step in cooking sweet and sour beef involves preparing the sauce. To do this, in a separate container, you need to mix sugar, tomato paste and the amount of vinegar indicated in the components, and then pour this mass over the meat and add the fried pineapples. After adding spices, simmer the meat for about 15 minutes.

A small recommendation for those who like spicy sauce: you need to add finely chopped bell pepper to it. In Chinese restaurants, it is very common to sprinkle meat with sesame seeds, you can also use this simple tip.

Reviews

According to reviews, beef in sweet and sour sauce hasunique taste. It can be eaten as an independent dish, served with a side dish or wrapped in pita bread. Mistresses advise using a beef shoulder blade for cooking. Then the dish will be more tender.