Lamplight Beef (燈影牛肉)

Another Szechuan dish! This time it's a snack!  Or, an appetizer!  This dish gets its name from the lamplight that shines through the thin beef slices.  It's not that hard to accomplish, if we use the right kind of beef :-). We use beef shank for Part I below, and beef brisket or bottom round roast for Part II. As it turns out, what we make here is more or less the Szechuan version of Chinese Beef Jerky (牛肉乾), a snack we made before.

I. Lamplight Beef Slices (燈影牛肉片)

1. Blanch ~2 lbs of beef shanks (牛腱) for ~3 minutes.  Drain water, rinse the beef and the pot thoroughly.
2. Immerse the beef shanks (in whole pieces) in water in a large-sized pot, add 1 tsp of salt.  Bring to boil, and let simmer till a single chopstick can poke through the thickest part of the shank smoothly (~1.5 hours). 
3. Take the shanks out, drain fluid, and let sit in fridge over night.
4. [Prepare the Sauce] Mince 2-3 chunks of scallions, a 1"x2" chunk of ginger, and 8-10 pieces of garlic.  In a frying pan, add 4-6 Tbsp of veggie oil, turn on low heat and add the minced scallions, ginger, and garlic into the pan.  Add 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 Tbsp of hot pepper powder (辣椒粉, more if you like it spicy hot), 1 Tbsp of Szechuan Peppercorn powder (花椒粉), 3 Tbsp of sugar into the pot, stir and mix thoroughly.  Note- If we use commercially available hot pepper oil  (辣椒油) and Szechuan Peppercorn oil (花椒油) instead of the powders, there is no need to use veggie oil in the frying pan.  
5. While cooking the sauce at low heat, thinly slice the beef shanks.  As you slice the shank, place the slices flatly in the frying pan (still at low heat).  Now, pan fry the slices in the sauce till the slices slightly shrivel.  
6. Place the pan-fried beef shank slices in a serving plate the way you like to present them. Chill, sprinkle roasted white sesame seeds on top, and serve. The left-side plate in the picture below shows the outcome from our kitchen.
   

II. Lamplight Shredded Beef (燈影牛肉絲)

1. Blanch ~2 lbs of beef brisket or bottom round roast for ~3 minutes.  Drain water, rinse the beef and the pot thoroughly. Note- Whole Beef Brisket is available from Smart and Final in Los Angeles Area. Corned beef made of beef brisket is NOT suitable for the purpose here.
2. Immerse the beef brisket or bottom round roast (in whole piece) in water in a large-sized pot, add 1 tsp of salt.  Bring to boil, and let simmer till a single chopstick can poke through the thickest part of the beef smoothly (~3 hours for beef brisket, ~2 hours for bottom round roast). 
3. Take the beef out, and drain fluid.  For the beef brisket, follow the instructions in this excellent YouTube video to trim the fat (trimming the fat after 3 hours of cooking seems a manageable task).
4. Chill the beef in fridge overnight, and then hand-shred the beef along its fiber to the thickness of 3-4 matchsticks (or toothpicks) bundled together.
5. Line a baking pan with parchment paper, and place the shredded beef flatly on the parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 300-degF, place the baking pan in the oven, bake for 15 minutes (turning the shredded beef every 5 minutes). Note- For a dryer version of the shredded beef, use 350-degF.
6. [Prepare the Sauce] Mince 2-3 chunks of scallions, a 1"x2" chunk of ginger, and 8-10 pieces of garlic.  In a frying pan, add 4-6 Tbsp of veggie oil, turn on low heat and add the minced scallions, ginger, and garlic into the pan.  Add 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 Tbsp of hot pepper powder (辣椒粉, more if you like it spicy hot), 1 Tbsp of Szechuan Peppercorn powder (花椒粉), 3 Tbsp of sugar into the pot, stir and mix thoroughly.  Note- If we use commercially available hot pepper oil  (辣椒油) and Szechuan Peppercorn oil (花椒油) instead of the powders, there is no need to use veggie oil in the frying pan.  
7. Place the baked shredded beef in the sauce, stir and mix thoroughly. Take the shredded beef out by draining the sauce slightly back into the pan (pick up the shredded beef from the pan with a pair of chopsticks, shake lightly before placing into the serving plate).
8. Chill, sprinkle roasted white sesame seeds on top, and serve. The right-side plate in the picture above shows the outcome from our kitchen.