NZ-Chinese-style chow mein

As tradition built it

About 30 minutes. The beef marinates at least 10 minutes.

Ingredients

The beef

• 300g steak, very thinly sliced
• 1 tsp cornflour
• ¼ tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp soy sauce

The sauce

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 60ml beef stock
• 1½ tsp sugar
• 1 tsp cornflour

The noodles

• 225g dried chow mein or thin egg noodles
• 1 to 2 tbsp oil
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 240ml cabbage, thinly sliced
• 4 spring onions, green tops, in 2cm pieces
• to taste salt and pepper

Method

1. Mix the steak with the cornflour, sugar, sesame oil and soy. Cover and refrigerate at least 10 minutes, and up to 8 hours.
2. Whisk the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.
3. Cook the noodles in salted boiling water as the packet says.
4. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Cook the steak in batches, 3 minutes a side, until golden. Set it aside.
5. Add more oil if needed, then the onion and carrots. Cook about 4 minutes, until the onion is translucent, and salt them.
6. Add the garlic and stir-fry 1 minute. Add the spring onions and cabbage and cook 1 minute more.
7. Add the noodles and steak and mix. Pour in the sauce and bring it to a simmer for a few minutes, until the cabbage and spring onions have wilted a little.

Notes

The recipe is Jana Macpherson's, a Queenstown home cook, at The MacPherson Diaries, written as a takeaway copy. My Food Bag's chicken chow mein uses oyster sauce, honey and sweet chilli, garlic and ginger paste, bok choy and peas over a medium-high heat. No New Zealand Chinese cook or takeaway family was found publishing a recipe.

What a modern chef changes

A reduced, chinois-passed sauce and textural noodle contrast

This chapter's own technique work. Rung 5, restraint and single-technique focus, adapted.

Method

1. Build the sauce as a controlled stovetop reduction, then pass through a chinois, giving a glossier, grit-free coating than a high-heat, all-at-once toss achieves.
2. Dehydrate a portion of the noodles briefly before the final toss, for pieces with genuine textural contrast against the softer, sauce-coated majority.
3. Finish with a fresh herb and a squeeze of citrus, a contemporary garnish move borrowed from the wider modern New Zealand fine-dining scene documented above, rather than any specific named precedent for this dish itself.

Notes

No chef-driven precedent for an elevated New Zealand-Chinese chow mein was found in this research; this is our own technique work.