Beef and green peppers with black bean sauce and egg fried rice - Gluten Free

Beef with green peppers and black bean sauce & egg friend rice

One of my favourite take away dishes before my gluten free days was beef and green peppers in black bean sauce. Unfortunately, due to the soy sauce, you can rarely find a gluten free version. I love recreating Chinese dishes at home. You can recreate the flavour of your favourite Chinese takeaway classics but making it from scratch gives it a real freshness. I was amazed at how authentic this tasted. The people at Tilda sent me some wholegrain and wild rice which you can stir fry straight from the packet. If you want to make the rice yourself, just cook basmati rice for around 8 mins, drain and spread out on a plate and leave to cool. As everything is fairly quick cook, you're better preparing everything ready to go. I'll give you the steps for the rice and then the beef to make it clear, but as we're only looking at a few minutes cooking time you need to do both at once.

Ingredients (serves 2):
For the egg fried rice:

• 150g cooked rice
• An egg, whisked
• 3 spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil

For the beef and green peppers in black bean sauce:

• Thumb sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed,
• 3 spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 red chilli, finely sliced
• 1 pak choi, washed and roughly chopped
• 1 green pepper, roughly sliced into squares
• 350g beef, thinly sliced into strips
• 1.5 tbsp fermented black beans, rinsed (local Asian grocery shop will stock)
• 150ml vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp corn flour mixed with 2 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

To make the egg fried rice put a wok on a high heat and add the sesame oil. Add the cooked rice and break up with a wooden spoon, Keep it moving round the pan. After a couple of minutes, add the spring onions and fry for a couple more minutes. Push the rice and spring onions to the edge of the wok and add the egg to the middle of the pan, leave for around 30 seconds to cook, then break up with a wooden spoon and mix together. Finally add the soy sauce and fry for another couple of minutes, or until a some of the rice has started to crisp up.

To make the beef in black bean sauce, put a frying pan on a high heat and add the oil. Now add the ginger, garlic and spring onions and fry for a minute. Add the green pepper and beef strips, fry for another minute to sear the beef. Now add the black beans and pak choi and keep everything moving in the pan for another minute. Now add around 100ml of the vegetable stock, followed by the corn flour mix. Check the consistency of the sauce, if it's too thick and some more of the vegetable stock. Cook for another minute to bring everything together and then serve alongside the rice.

You don't need to be overly precise with the times, the key is to have the wok and frying pan on a really high heat and keep things moving so they don't catch. Hope you enjoy, we certainly did!