Beef with Egg Gravy Over Rice
One of my favorite childhood dishes of all time is beef with egg gravy over rice. It’s a classic Cantonese dish with very simple components: beef, egg, and rice. I remember going to New York with my family when my grandparents still took care of me and my brother, and my grandpa would always take us to this restaurant on the corner in Chinatown that served this dish piping hot with a side of steamed gai lan.
I’m honestly starting to drool just thinking about it! After those visits stopped around the time I was in high school because my grandparents moved back to Hong Kong, this was a dish I always requested from my parents. Luckily, Alan also loves it so we took it upon ourselves to try and recreate it at home — what else is there to do in 2020 but stay at home and cook?
With a couple of tips from my parents, we finally locked down a recipe that I can’t get enough of! We normally serve ours with some chopped scallions but you can pair it with any veggies you’d like.
Beef with Egg Gravy Over Rice
Makes 2 servings
Ingredients
10 oz flank steak (sliced into strips)
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp light soy sauce
¼ tsp white pepper
¼ tsp sugar
¼ salt
1-2 garlic cloves, minced (use 2 if cloves are small)
1 tsp canola oil (or any other cooking oil)
4 stalks scallions, diced for garnish
2 bowls of cooked white rice
For the gravy:
1 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water
4 eggs
Pinch of salt
Instructions:
Combine the steak, cornstarch, soy sauce, garlic, white pepper, sugar, and salt in a bowl and let it sit for at least 15 minutes.
In a bowl, scramble the eggs, add a pinch of salt, and set the bowl aside for later.
In a wok or pan, heat the oil up over medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the beef and start browning. Use chopsticks or a spatula to break the meat up so no pieces are stuck together.
Once the meat has browned on all sides (around 4 minutes) but hasn’t been cooked through, remove it from the pan into a separate bowl.
Add chicken stock to your pan and bring it to a boil. While the stock is heating up, make your cornstarch slurry with the 2 tbsp cornstarch and 2 tbsp water.
Once the stock is boiling, add the slurry and stir until the broth has thickened up (if you make the slurry in advance, give it a quick stir before pouring in case the starch settles).
Add the beef back into the pan and give it a quick stir so it keeps cooking in the hot liquid. Drizzle the scrambled eggs in and move the bowl around the pan as you pour so the egg “blooms” as it hits the hot liquid and starts to cook.
Turn the heat off and let your egg cook in the residual heat. After 30 seconds, gently use your spatula or chopsticks to push the scrambled eggs — push from the edge towards the center.
Remove the pan from the heat and get your cooked rice ready. Pour the beef and egg gravy over the rice and garnish with the scallions.
