Beef with cumin from Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province by Fuchsia Dunlop

Where’s the full recipe - why can I only see the ingredients?

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

  • Ro_ on March 18, 2021

    I didn't want to deep fry the meat, so used about 100ml of oil and shallow fried. It came out fine. I really liked the flavour and texture (thickish) of the sauce. I was sceptical that it would need added salt, but it absolutely did. Would make again.

  • Bloominanglophile on January 31, 2020

    This dish, in both of Dunlop's books "Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook" and "Every Grain of Rice", tends to get high marks. I thought it was fine, but not one of my favorite dishes. Will make this again to see if my impressions are consistent.

  • kitchen_chick on November 15, 2018

    I love this dish; however, I don't always feel like deep frying - it's messy and, well, it's a lot of oil. So rather than doing the deep frying stage, I opted this time to add some oil to the marinading beef to loosen it right before stir-frying. You don't get the same amazing silky texture as you do when passing the meat through the oil, but it's still a nice, flavorful stir-fry. Next time I'm going to add some whole cumin seeds, too. (We love cumin.)

  • clcorbi on June 23, 2017

    Very nice sauce. We used 2t of chili flakes (the minimum recommended amount), and found it to be plenty spicy. The oil splattering is definitely pretty intense in this recipe. I added the marinade to the pan along with the beef, but not clear if I was actually supposed to do that (I have had this issue with a few Dunlop recipes; the rare instance where her instructions are unclear). Anyway, a bit of a user error, bf cut the meat into rather large cubes rather than thin strips. So the texture was a bit off, but the sauce was delicious, and I'd definitely try this again with the meat cut more nicely for a stirfry.

  • mamacrumbcake on October 02, 2016

    I thought this was pretty good. My husband thought there was too much cumin. Two things I was not expecting: (1) the potato flour in the marinade caused the marinade to become a thick paste which had to be massaged into the meat. (2) the use of so much oil to fry the meat. You will definitely want to wear a apron and use a splatter shield over your pan--hot oil bombs flying around the kitchen, ouch!

  • Breadcrumbs on October 01, 2015

    p. 102 - This dish came highly recommended by Joan on CH and I have no idea why it’s taken me this long to try it as we absolutely loved it. I used Thai bird chilies and they produced a perfect amount of heat for us. I used beef tenderloin this time around but will try flank steak next time. Highly recommend this one, even for non-cumin lovers as mr bc is in that camp but loved this dish. Photo here: http://www.chowhound.com/post/cooking-fall-2015-show-meals-1025190?commentId=9736388#9736388

  • JoanN on September 02, 2014

    This is one of my all-time favorite recipes. I start to crave it if I don't have it once a month. I up the amount of cumin, and grind the fresh seeds coarsely. I used to try to cut back on the oil, but don't any longer. The greater amount of oil gives the meat a beautifully silky texture and you pour most of the oil out anyway. I use flank steak almost exclusively.

  • chawkins on August 22, 2013

    Flavorful, we loved this. I'm just reading the earlier notes here that said the marinade made a sticky sauce, I discarded my marinade, I thought this is supposed to be a dry dish.

  • amraub on January 29, 2012

    Quick and easy with a nice level of heat.

  • Snadra on December 02, 2011

    Fragrant with cumin, and it does yield a tender result. The marinade makes a sort of sticky sauce for the beef. We did cut back on the chiles. The biggest problem was pouring the excess oil out of the wok, but otherwise it came together quickly. Served with plain rice and a quick cabbage salad.

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