Yunnan Beef Fried Mint
A coastal take on a Yunnan classic. (傣味炒牛肉/薄荷牛肉沫)
Stir fried beef with mint is one of my personal favorite dishes, and you can find it at Yunnan restaurants all around China, from Beijing to Shenzhen. There's just… something about fresh mint that seems to go really well with ground beef and chilis. But interestingly, while this dish is practically synonymous with Yunnan food over here in coastal China, in the mountains of Yunnan itself, it's not really that much of a thing.
You see, Yunnan restaurants outside of Yunnan have an herb problem. The issue? Well.. that pocket of China ends up making pretty liberal use of the sort of fresh herbs that you might associate less with Chinese food and a bit more with Southeast Asia: sawtooth coriander, laksa leaf, Thai basil.
And while in big cities you can find those around at wholesale restaurant-supply markets here or there, they're never cheap. And, you know, restaurants gotta pay rent.
So against that backdrop, enter the aggressively-herbaceous classic Yunnan dish, Dai flavor fried beef. As the name suggests, it's a Dai people's dish that features – you guessed it – sawtooth coriander, laksa leaf, and Thai basil.
So for a small restaurant potentially thousands of kilometers away from Yunnan, that can be a bit of an ask. So, they do what any one of us would do in their position, and substitute.
And mint? Is the substitute of choice, and honestly… I love it. So while below is the true-blue-Dai-Yunnan dish with all the herbs included, do know that it’s also easy enough to swap all of that stuff for just mint - instructions inside of the recipe, of course.
Dai Flavor Fried Beef
Beef chuck, 320g. Preferably minced by hand.
Marinade for the beef:
Salt, ½ tsp.
Cornstarch (生粉), ½ tsp.
Soy sauce (生抽), 1 tsp.
Dark soy sauce (老抽), ½ tsp. Optional.
Sichuan peppercorn powder a.k.a. Fagara powder (花椒面), ¼ tsp.
Oil to coat, ~½ tbsp.
Mint (薄荷叶), 160g or:
Sawtooth Coriander a.k.a. Culantro (大芫荽), 40g.
Jiucai Chinese Chives a.k.a. Buchu (韭菜), 40g.
Laksa Leaf a.k.a. Rau Ram a.k.a. Vietnamese Coriander (叻沙叶/辣蓼), 40g.
Thai Basil a.k.a. horapha (罗勒/金不换), 40g. Note: If going the not-mint route, as the bottoms of the sawtooth and the jiucai need to be sliced off, you'll want to buy 50g each of those to get ~40g each after prepping.
Aromatics:
Garlic, 2-3 cloves. Minced.
Heaven facing (朝天椒) or Thai bird's eye chilis, ~4.
Seasoning for the stir fry:
Soy sauce (生抽), 1 tsp.
Salt, ¼ tsp.
Star anise powder (八角粉), ¼ tsp.
Chinese Black Cardamom a.k.a. Tsaoko powder (草果面), ¼ tsp -or- nutmeg powder, ⅛ tsp. You can sub the Tsaoko powder with nutmeg - close enough in the context of a wider dish.
MSG (味精), ⅛ tsp.
Water, ¼ cup.
Process:
Make some star anise and Chinese black cardamom powder:
Using four each will give you a nice quantity to keep in the cupboard. Toast over medium-low flame for ~5 minutes, peel the cardamom and remove the seeds inside, grind both into powders.
To prep:
Hand mince 320g beef chuck, if hand mincing. First slice the beef into a dice, then grab a pair of cleavers and just start chopping - periodically folding the meat over itself. This will take about fifteen minutes.
Marinate the beef with ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp cornstarch, 1 tsp soy sauce, ½ tsp dark soy sauce - optional, ½ tsp Sichuan peppercorn powder. Coat with ~½ tbsp oil.
Slice up 2-3 cloves garlic and ~4 heaven facing or Thai bird's eye chilis.
Stir fry:
First longyau - get your wok piping hot, shut off the heat, add in ~2-3 tbsp of oil, give it a swirl. Heat on high now, add in the beef - break it up a bit, fry until cooked through, ~2 minutes. Scooch the beef up the side of the wok, swap the flame to low, add another tablespoon of oil (if needed), fry the garlic/chilis for ~15 seconds til fragrant.
Swap the flame back to high, fry everything all together, swirl in 1 tsp soy sauce, add the seasoning - 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp star anise powder, 1/4 tsp Chinese Black Cardamom powder or 1/8 tsp nutmeg powder, 1/8 tsp MSG. Quick fry, and if you're using jiucai Chinese chives, add 40g in at this point. Add in 1/4 cup water and cover. Swap the flame down to medium, wait ~1 minute or so until the water is absorbed into the beef. Uncover and add in the herbs (160g mint or the remainder of the herb mix). Immediately shut off the heat, and mix it off the heat for ~30 seconds.