I love the ActiFry for french fries, chicken wings, and ginger beef! You may be thinking – whaaa?? Ginger beef?
Hell’s yah! It’s crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The recipe is one that someone contributed to the ActiFry recipe website, so I certainly can’t take any credit for it. Below is the link to the recipe and some of my thoughts based on my experience with it…
1st off – Grating fresh ginger sucks. But, it tastes much better than the stuff in a jar. If you don’t want to grate that much ginger, I recommend doing half fresh ginger and half minced ginger in a jar that you can get from the grocery store. Ginger is pretty zippy and the recipe gets pretty spicy so I haven’t actually used the full amount required in the recipe.
2ndly – Use a wooden or plastic chopstick to regularly separate the beef or you’ll get clumps of beef and clumps of cooked cornstarch. It’s OK if you get clumps of cornstarch though, as it thickens the sauce in the end.
3rd – Although the sauce provided in the recipe is sufficient (I’ve made it three times following the recipe), you may want to add a bit more liquids to make a bit more sauce. We were fine using soy sauce on our rice, but I must try to remember to make more sauce next time.
4th – I love my mandolin- it’s great for julienning the carrots.
Finally – The sticky sauce is a challenge to clean out of the bottom of the ActiFry paddle. I think the paddle is poorly designed… but don’t let this stop you from trying the recipe! Just soak the paddle well before trying to clean it 🙂
Ingredients
- 1 lb beef steak or roast. Use inexpensive cuts e.g. flank, sirloin, inside or outside round
- 3/4 cup cornstarch (less will work)
- 1/2 cup water (less will work)
- 2 eggs (1 egg works)
- 1 large carrot, julienned (you can also add small strips of green pepper for colour and flavour)
- 3 green onions, chopped OR 1/4 cup diced cooking onions
- 1/4 cup fresh ginger, minced
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 4 tablespoons rice vinegar OR regular vinegar OR wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
Preparation
1. Trim excess fat from the beef and cross cut into narrow strips up to 2 ½ inches long. (Cross cutting the grain yields more tender meat. Note: Chilled or partially frozen beef is easier to slice) 2. Place cornstarch in a medium size bowl 3. Add water gradually while whisking 4. Beat eggs into cornstarch mixture 5. Toss in beef and stir to coat 6. Pour 1 Tbsp cooking oil into ActiFry 7. Pick beef out of egg mixture, put into ActiFry and cook for approximately 20 minutes or until crispy. At first, the beef tends to go around in a big glob, but eventually starts breaking up into individual pieces. You may need to separate some of the strips of beef with a soft utensil like chop sticks 8. Remove beef and set aside 9. In ActiFry combine sesame oil, carrots, onion, ginger, and garlic. Cook for approximately 5 minutes or until carrots are cooked to your liking 10. Add the last 4 ingredients to the vegetable mixture. To thicken the sauce more you can add a small amount of corn starch / water mixture if so desired 11. Bring sauce in the ActiFry to a boil, then add the beef 12. Heat until the beef is completely coated in the sauce and the sauce has thickened 12. Serve with white rice
http://tfalactifry.com/recipes/view/actifry-ginger-beef-from-scratch
jen says
This looks awesome! Do you remember which cut off beef you used?
jen says
This looks awesome! Do you remember which cut off beef you used?
Eat With Me Canada says
Sadly, I can’t remember! Nothing too expensive, that’s for sure… it may have been striploin because I used to purchase lots for the freezer when it was on sale.
Lisa says
I like this one too. I am trying for the second time tonight. I am going to try and make the coating thicker this time and make twice the amount of sauce!