Gluten Free: Chinese Crispy Beef

It's Friday! It's pay day! Lets all get takeaway for dinner to celebrate our survival of the most skint month of the year! Let's all get Chinese food!

Oh, great. Yet another meal us gluten free folks can't eat. Wheat in soya sauce means that, unless you want steamed vegetables and boiled rice again, the Chinese takeaway is fraught with disappointment (and potential intestinal turmoil). Then comes the dilemma, do you reject the suggestion of Chinese food and force everyone to eat something else, or do you chow down on another dull dinner of plain rice? Worry no more! I've got a classic take away dish for you and I promise, it'll take less time to prepare than the delivery driver will take to find your house. 

You''ll need:

• 3 eggs
• a big pinch sea salt
• 70g cornflour
• ¼ tsp ground white pepper
• 300g beef, cut into thin strips (or use a pack of ready-sliced stir fry beef)
• vegetable oil, for frying
• a small carrot, cut into long strips with a vegetable peeler then cut lengthways into thin matchsticks
• 2 spring onions, cut lengthways into strips
• a red chilli, deseeded and cut into long matchsticks (a jalapeño or bullet chilli is ideal)
• a couple of garlic cloves, crushed
• 50g sugar
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar (or cider vinegar)
• 1 tbsp gluten free tamari* (I use Kikkoman's which you can buy in the freefrom aisle at Sainsbury's)

Make it! 

• Whisk the eggs, salt, cornflour and pepper together to make a smooth batter. Stir in the beef to coat it with the batter.
• Heat about 3cm oil in a saucepan (or use a deep-fat fryer) to 180°C, it's hot enough when a drop of the batter starts to sizzle as soon as you drop it in. Very carefully, add the coated beef to the oil, piece by piece. Cook for 2 minutes, stir and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove the beef with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. If you need to fry the beef in batches, make sure the oil comes up to 180°C again before continue. 
• Meanwhile, heat a little oil in a wok and stir fry the carrot, spring onions and chilli for one minute. Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds longer, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add the sugar, rice vinegar and tamari and keep stirring until the sugar dissolves.
• Stir in the crispy beef to coat in the sticky sauce and serve.

This recipe serves two people so you can share with a friend or (and I prefer this option) keep some for the traditional Chinese-food-for-breakfast the following day.

*If you can't find tamari, or have a soya allergy or intolerance, you can make this substitute. Take a tablespoon of dried mushrooms and pour 3 tbsps boiling water over them. Leave to soak for about 20 minutes. Use 1 tbsp of the mushroom water and ½ tsp salt in place of tamari.