中文菜谱：

香辣牛肉豆干酱

The spicy ground beef here is more like spicy meat sauce. It is not served as an independent entrée or appetizer in our house. Instead it is used as a condiment or topping in rice and noodles.

In China, there is a long time tradition to make meat sauce with heavy dose of salt and oil, in some areas chili peppers too. The original purpose in doing so is to preserve meat and other food ingredients when food was scarce. However, as time goes by, people get attached to this type of food. Pick any Asian grocery store you like. Go in there. You will see so many different varieties of chili oil sauces, meat pepper sauces and pickles on the shelves.

Sometimes I buy meaty sauce from my favorite Asian grocery stores. Other times I like spending time in kitchen whipping up my own special spicy meat oil sauce.

I usually add spicy ground beef to the freshly homemade noodles as a topping. The flavor is enhanced and the noodles are so much more appetizing O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients：

1 lb lean ground beef (95% or 100% lean)
2 gloves of garlic, peeled and finely diced
1 small piece of ginger root, fine chopped
2 tablespoons rice cooking wine
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
1/4 to 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 to 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup Pixian chili paste
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground Sichuan peppercorns
1/3 to 1/2 cup crushed red chili pepper/ cayenne pepper
salt to taste
1/2 cup of cooking oil
1 package of dried seasoned tofu (weighs around 200g. Usually sold in fridge section in Asian grocery stores)

Directions:

Dice the dried tofu.

Heat a light weight cast iron wok over high heat. Add oil, and then ground beef, along with chopped ginger and garlic.

Stir fry the beef until it turns slightly golden brown.

Reduce the heat to medium low. Add rice cooking wine, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, Pixian chili paste, oyster sauce, ground Sichuan peppercorns, crushed red chili pepper/ cayenne pepper.

Sauté the mixture over medium low heat for 8 to 10 minutes

Add diced tofu. Season with salt.

And then continue to sauté for another 4 to 5 minutes.

Remove from heat

The spicy ground beef can be stored in Ball Mason jars in the fridge for up to a week.

It goes really great with noodle soup and steamed white rice.

I posted how to make noodles at home before: Homemade Noodles in Thick Pork Broth

Cook the noodles in boiling water for 45 seconds to one minute. Add to a bowl, along with soy sauce, sesame oil, Sichuan peppercorn oil, chili oil sauce, spicy ground beef with dice tofu, finely shredded cucumber, chopped cilantro, green onion, and of course, crunchy soybeans.

Crunchy soybeans was posted recently: Crunchy Soybeans