Mushroom Beef

Mushrooms are one of Ian's favorite foods, so when we saw the mushroom beef recipe we had to try it.

This is also the first time that we significantly changed the ingredients and some of the methods in a Kai recipe. The original recipe used bell pepper and mushrooms, but we increased the amount of mushrooms, decreased the amount of bell pepper, and included carrots. Kai marinated the meat in all the sauce ingredients, whereas we marinated the meat in only soy sauce and corn starch, and added the remaining sauce ingredients at the end of cooking. Additionally, Kai stir fried the vegetables and then added the raw meat near the end of cooking. We stir fried the vegetables, removed them, stir fried the beef with the garlic, and then added the cooked vegetables and sauce to finish the dish.

The ingredients were as follows:
1/2 lb beef, sliced thin
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice cooking wine
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp corn starch
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 red bell pepper
1 pack white mushrooms sliced
1 carrot sliced into thin strips



First the vegetables were stir fried


then the meat was stir fried


the vegetables and beef were combined and the sauce was added


beef and mushrooms was served with jasmine rice


Ian cleans his bowl in approval


With the modifications that we made, this recipe would serve 4 people. The pepper added a slight peppery taste to the entire dish, which was nice but different from the other Kai recipes we've made. The carrots were a first too, and they turned out really tasty. Perhaps Kai has a recipe that calls for carrots we can make.. time to start searching!

Overall, this meal deserves 4 out of 5 carrot bunches

Ingredients used

I've been receiving alot of reader questions concerning the brands of sauces/ingredients that we use. So I've decided to make a post listing our favorites. Also, know that all the ingredients we use in the Kai recipes are gluten/wheat free.

These are our current favorites:

Sauces:
Soy sauce= Nuoc Tuong Chay Soya Sauce made by Flying Horse (real soybeans, no wheat or MSG)
Hoisin sauce= Dynasty brand (gluten free, MSG free)
Oyster sauce= Panda Brand from Lee Kum Kee, oyster flavored sauce (wheat and MSG free)
Sesame oil= Kadoya pure sesame oil (avoid the sesame oil blends)
Rice vinegar= Kame brand
Rice cooking wine= Kame brand

Meats:
Chicken thighs for all chicken dishes. Thighs are much more tender and can tolerate being over cooked better than breast meat.
For beef, the chef recommends flank steak with the next best cut being chuck. Avoid top round or bottom round cuts.

Pineapple Chicken

Kai's orange chicken recipe was so good, so we decided to try pineapple chicken. It's one of Kai's favorites, so we figured it must taste good! Pineapple chicken has the same basic chicken preparation step as orange chicken, and has a similar sauce.

The recipe is as follows:

1/2 lb chicken cut into pieces. We used 2 chicken thighs
1 cup pineapple cubed
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp rice cooking wine
1/4 cup pineapple juice
2 tsp corn starch
rice flour and 1 beaten egg for battering and dredging chicken


We took the advice of Kai and used canned pineapple.

First the sauce ingredients were combined, and the pineapple measured. We bought pre-sliced canned pineapple, so this step was easy.


Ian cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Even though both orange chicken and pineapple chicken call for deep fried battered chicken, both use different methods to batter the chicken. We decided to use the method described in the orange chicken recipe. Basically, the chicken is dredged in rice flour, dipped in beaten egg, and dredged again in rice flour. We used a mixture of sweet and regular rice flour and a pinch of salt for seasoning.


The chicken was fried for a few minutes in the deep fryer


The pineapple was briefly stir fried in the wok


The sauce ingredients were added and quickly thickened to a nice sauce.


The chicken was added and everything was stir fried for another minute.


The pineapple chicken was served with jasmine rice


This recipe served enough for 2 dinners and 2 small left over lunches. We were very impressed with the overall taste of the sauce and pineapple. We both decided that pineapple chicken tastes slightly better than orange chicken, although orange chicken is still deserving of 8.75/10 flour bags.

Despite having the tip of his nose mutilated by a rat bite earlier in the day, Ian shows his approval for pineapple chicken.


This recipe is deserving of 9 out of 10 pineapples