how to make our sweet & sticky crispy px beef

Welcome to "be the chef" - a new weekly recipe blog from baresca tapas family, showing you how to cook classic baresca recipes fresh at home. For this one, we’re going to give you the inside scoop on how to make the vibrant sweet & sticky crispy px beef.

Now that we’re all starting to spend much more time at home, the changing world at the moment can get a little anxious for all of us.

But if there’s one thing we know for certain from all the amazing shared experiences we get to see from happy friends and family in our restaurants, it's that food brings people together. There’s a reason we always say “tapas shared tastes better,” and we want you to have those good times around the dinner table, while also taking this time to become more confident chefs yourself.

And we’ve reworked some key elements of our recipes, to make sure they can easily be made using ingredients you can get from the supermarket (we recommend shopping local where possible - Fruit Basket is a great place to get fresh deliveries and Harker’s Farm shop is an amazing place for meat), paired with those essential staples you should pack your pantry with, to be used in many more meals to come.

Also, there are some cooking techniques that could be dangerous in a family home (e.g. deep fat frying), so only do this if you’re confident of the safety around it. If not, we will offer a simple alternative that still gives the dish all the same flavour you know and love.

So get into those kitchens and treat everyone to something extra nice this weekend. We will be posting another recipe every week, for you to become a superstar chef in no time!

Crispy Sticky PX Beef - serves 4

INGREDIENTS

- 500g beef skirt (or sirloin/ rump) very thinly cut into shreds

- 30g cornflour

Marinade

- 95g Dark soy sauce (we use a gluten free one- but any will do)

- 80g peeled and roughly chopped onions

- 60g fresh grated ginger or jarred ginger purée

- 4-5 garlic cloves

- 12g chilli flakes

- 5g vegetable oil

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The sauce

- 120g Hoisin sauce

- 120g Teriyaki sauce

- 20g Pedro Ximénez sherry (Harveys Bristol cream or rum would work - the essential here is that it's dark and sweet)

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To garnish

- 35g sliced spring onion

- 35g thinly sliced red chilli

- 10g sesame seeds

Method:

1. Whizz together the ingredients for the marinade in a food processor and decant to a large bowl or dish.

2. Add the shredded beef to the marinade. Go for a minimum of 4 hours, or prepare this the day before and pop in the fridge overnight.

3. Once the beef has marinaded, whisk together the ingredients for the sauce in a separate bowl and put to one side until required. Leave covered at room temperature.

4. Add the cornflour to a tray or shallow dish. Remove the beef from marinade, separate the beef shreds and add to the cornflour. Move it all around in the tray, ensuring the beef is coated evenly with the flour.

5. Time to cook, you’ve got two options here:

a) Use this cooking technique if you’re confident you can do it safely - probably not in a family home. Deep fry the beef: use a deep fat fryer or heat a deep good sized saucepan with vegetable oil to 180° (see note**). Shake the excess flour from the beef and deep fry for two minutes.

b) Use this simpler method if you want to be safer - Heat a frying pan with a dash of vegetable oil on a very high heat until it starts to smoke and flash fry for two minutes maximum. You want to ensure the beef is crispy but not burnt!

6. Remove the beef from the oil with a slotted spoon and knock off excess oil before tipping into a mixing bowl. You can do this in 2 stages so the oil doesn’t cool too quickly.

7. Once all cooked add enough sauce to the mixing bowl to coat beef very generously, add sesame seeds.

8. Spoon the beef mixture on to a warm plate and garnish with the spring onion and chilli’s.

**Note- take care when deep frying! If using a saucepan turn the heat off the saucepan as soon as the beef is cooked and leave in a safe place to cool away from the edge of cooker or worktop where dogs and kids may jump up. (once cooled, you can sieve the oil and reuse for other deep frying).

Have a go

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