This is a recipe for cooking with water bamboo stir fry. Water bamboo is a fresh shoot available to buy from Chinese grocers. It is a new vegetable for me I found out about water bamboo on social media and was curious to try it out. As a result, I like cooking with water bamboo as it has got a lovely crunchy taste on it. A bit different from canned bamboo shoots which are preserved in brine. It is great to use on stir-fries as it’s quick to cook and it preserves its crunchiness.
This recipe is a recipe I made myself. It is not related to any regions in China as some recipes are. Although in my journey I found some regional recipes that use these water bamboo shoots. On its own it hasn’t got any flavour, therefore, it will need some flavouring from ginger, soy sauce or shitake mushroom.
To cook the water bamboo shoot one will need to prepare the shoot by cutting and peeling away the green leaf layer off. It will reveal some nice white tender shoots. Cut it or slice it to bite-size. I use an Aberdeen Angus rump beef steak which I got from Waitrose. In which I slice into thin slices. The steak and oyster sauce gives some flavor to the shoots.
After writing this recipe I wrote another recipe using water bamboo shoot this time it is cooking with Pak Choi and shitake mushrooms. Here is the link to it. That recipe is a vegan recipe as it doesn’t contain any meat.
Water bamboo Stir fry
3 Water bamboo (available from Asian grocers) if not can substitute with canned bamboo shoots but with a bit less crunch and fresh taste
A handful of mangetout (about 150 grms)
1 large carrot
200 grms of beef rump steak (if beef not ok chicken meat will do as well, chicken breast or thigh)
4 teaspoonful of cornstarch
1 teaspoonful of shao xing wine ( white sherry wine), optional.
3 cloves of garlic
Three stalks of spring onion
3 slices (about 2-3mm) thick of ginger
2 teaspoonful of oyster sauce
1 teaspoonful of soy sauce
black pepper to taste
2-3 tablespoon of cooking oil
Cooking
Prepare the Vegetables for stir fry
Chop the garlic, slice the ginger finely and cut the spring onions into thin circles. Then slice the carrots and slice the mangetout.
Prepare the water bamboo remove the outer green layer as it’s tough to chew till you get the white core of the bamboo. Cut them onto strips about 1 cm.
Prepare the Beef
Cut away any tough tendon that is on rump steak then sliced thinly the beef. Marinate with some cornflour. If you like at this point you can add a bit of soy sauce and some shao xing wine to marinate.
Prepare the sauce.
In small a bowl put about 2 teaspoonful of cornstarch, 2 teaspoonful of oyster sauce, one teaspoonful of soy sauce and some black pepper. Then add about 250mls of water slowly mix till it’s well mix.
Stir Fry/ Cooking time
Heat about 2 tablespoon of oil on medium to high heat in a wok or frying pan. Once it’s heated up add the marinated beef. Stir fry it about 2-3 minutes till it’s partial cook. Till there is no more redness from the meat and it’s starting to turn brown. Take it out of the wok.
With the remaining oil and a bit more oil then fry the garlic, ginger and white part of spring onion till it releases the fragrant. Keep an eye and not let it burn. then add the carrots, mangetout and the water bamboo. Give it a good stir about 2 minutes.
Add the cornstarch sauce then once it’s beginning to thicken up add the beef. Coat the beef with sauce and vegetables. Then it’s done enjoy!!
I have done a video on it but wordpress.com wouldn’t allow me to post any videos on my current tariff. Here is the link https://youtu.be/qlY0Z7hSbnc
