Stir-fried beef and cucumber
About stir-fried beef and cucumber
“Stir-fried beef and cucumber” is a quick, easy, and tasty dish that it’s often on the table when cucumbers are inexpensive. It is a delicious stir-fry with refreshing cucumbers and well-seasoned beef.
The main ingredients are only beef and cucumber, and the rest is seasoning, green onion, garlic, and red pepper, so you can make it whenever you feel like it. As the taste is spicy, I often make it on hot summer days. I think it’s a convenient recipe to know.
Earlier people rarely used cucumbers in stir-fried dishes in Japan, but recently it seems cucumbers are being used more and more in stir-fried dishes. Cucumber is a vegetable that we often eat raw in salads, but when you actually use it for stir-fry it tastes better than you think.
Cucumbers are low in calories and they contain several important vitamins and minerals. I put a link to nutrition and health benefits of cucumber, please read it if you like.
Recipe tips
Cucumber preparation
Remove the seeds from the cucumbers so they don’t get watery when stir-frying. Sprinkle the cut cucumbers lightly with salt. This will remove the grassy smell of the cucumber and improve texture. Osmotic pressure naturally releases water, then wash off the salt and stir-fry. The saltiness soaked into the cucumber creates the flavor.
Beef
Use thinly sliced beef if possible. You can cook it in a short time and it will be tender. Alternatively, you can also do the same with ground beef. In that case I cut the cucumber into smaller pieces. The beef is marinated and then stir-fried, so the flavor is soaked in and it’s delicious.
Stir-fried beef and cucumber
Equipment
- 1 a frying pan
- 2 bowls
Ingredients
- 400~450 gram Cucumber
- 1½ teaspoon Salt
- 200 gram Beef (thinly sliced, cut into bite-size)
- 4 tablespoon Green onion (finely chopped)
- 1 teaspoon Garlic (finely chopped)
- ½ teaspoon Fresh red chilli pepper (finely chopped)
- 2 tablespoon Japanese soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Japanese sake, Chinese rice wine or sherry
- 2 teaspoon Granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon Sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon Roasted white sesame seeds
Instructions
- Cut the cucumber into 5 cm lengths, cut into quarters, and remove the seeds. Then cut in half again.
- Place them in a bowl, sprinkle with 1.5 teaspoons of salt and leave for 15-20 minutes. When it becomes slightly soft, wash it quickly with water, put it on a strainer to drain the water. Then wipe it with a paper towel.
- In another bowl put chopped green onion, garlic, chili pepper, Japanese soy sauce, Japanese sake, and sugar, and mix.
- Add beef and mix and leave for 5 to 10 minutes to season.
- Heat sesame oil in a frying pan over medium heat, add marinated beef and fry while spreading. When the color of the meat changes to brown, fry for another 1 minute.
- Add the cucumbers. Stir-fry for a minute or couple of minutes and sprinkle with sesame.
Notes
It’s very easy and delicious, so please try making it. I put links to other recipes using cucumbers, so if you’d like, try making them too.
Thank you for reading and Bon Appetit!