Guangzhou1 Oyster Beef Strips

Recipe from Lawrence C.C. Chu



Originating from Guangzhou1, this unique and quickly prepared dish results from stir-frying strips of marinated beef, onion, and green pepper together before blending in an oyster-flavoured sauce.

Yields:

6 servings

Time Required:

Ingredients:

Marinade


Sauce



Preparation:

Cut flank steak against the grain into 1 ½" (38mm) -wide pieces; then cut with the grain into ¼" (13 mm) pieces. Finally, cut into ¼ by ¼" (13 x 13 mm) strips, and then combine with MARINADE ingredients in the order listed; set aside.

Remove core and ends from bell pepper; slice lengthwise into julienne strips. Cut onion in half, and then finely slice with the grain. Combine SAUCE ingredients thoroughly; set aside.

To oil-blanch, set wok over high heat for about 1 min. Add 3 cups (700 ml) oil, and heat to 300°F (150°C).

Stir in beef, cooking just until redness is gone. Remove and drain.

To stir-fry, remove all but 3 Tbsp. (45 mL) oil from wok. Reheat, swirling pan to coat sides.

Add pepper and onion, cooking for about 1 min. until onion browns. Stir in beef and sauce, then thicken with 1 tsp. cornstarch paste and serve.

Author's Notes

Blanched broccoli or asparagus, or sautéed green onion and ginger make a flavourful substitute for the bell pepper and onion.

Cornstarch paste is a thin paste made from equal parts of cold water and corn starch. It's essential in many Chinese dishes (but be careful not to over-thicken). Stir just before using. Store covered in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.



Rich Chicken Broth

A good, rich-tasting chicken broth is essential to Chinese cooking, so, in my restaurant, I make no exceptions. I always use 4-5 lb. (1.8-2.3 kg.) chickens, because I'm preparing food in such volume, but you can use a regular broiler-fryer, if you prefer. I firmly believe a good broth needs no additives. So, why not take a little time (and not much effort), and prepare this chicken broth?

Yields:

8 servings

Time Required:

Ingredients:

Preparation:

To par-boil, place chicken (or bones) in an 8-qt. (7.5 L) stockpot. Cover with boiling water, and cook for 5 mins., to get rid of the scum. Pour chicken into a colander, rinse under cold water, and return chicken to pot.

To cook, add water and vegetables. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer uncovered for about 1 hrs. Occasionally skim surface as needed. Remove from head and cool, then strain well before using.

Author's Notes

As I mentioned, this recipe produces a rich broth that is the basic stock for many of my other soups. If you prefer not to make it, or you don't have the time, always use chicken bouillon (cubes) in water, rather than the less flavourful, canned chicken broth.

Save your chicken bones. You can use them to make broth, instead of a whole chicken.

Since the vegetables are added only for flavour, use tips and ends of onions and knobs of ginger root. I mention this since I was once told by a student that she couldn't find "knobs" of ginger at her market.

If you make broth several hours ahead of serving time, let it cool with the bones still inside. If made several days in advance, try freezing it in ice cube trays; when frozen, store cubes in a sealed freezer bag (1 ice cube equals ¼ to ⅓ cup broth).


1 Chef Chu used the older Romanisation "Canton" for this great capital and port city in the Pearl River Delta, southern China. The more-modern Hanyu Pinyin Romanisation "Guangzhou" now predominates, and has been official since 2009.

2 Quarts, pints, cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, and fl. oz. are as defined in US Customary Units, not to be confused with differing British imperial, "legal", "coffee", Commonwealth of Nations, Canadian, Latin American, Japanese, Russian, or Dutch definitions — further proof that everyone needs the metric system.

3 "Corn starch" is powdered starch processed from the New World grain maize (from Spanish, orig. from Nahuatl), which grain the USA/Canada call "corn", unlike the rest of the English-speaking world, which reserves "corn" to mean cereal grains generically. This starch product, needed here in its customary role as a thickening agent, is called "corn starch" in the US/Canada, but "cornflour" in the UK and most other anglophone lands — not to be confused with whole maize grain: That product — not a thickening agent — is called "polenta", "corn meal", or "corn flour" in the US/Canada, depending on how finely milled, and called "maize flour" in the UK and most other places. Australians should beware that their "cornflour" is starch extracted from wheat kernel, sometimes more-helpfully labelled as "wheaten cornflour". As if that weren't confusing enough, the maize-based thickener may be labelled (in Australia) either as "corn flour" or as "corn starch", so beware. Further, the maize flour product, there, is labelled as "cornmeal".

Note that whole-maize grain is traditionally, in Meso-American cultures of origin, wisely soaked in alkaline solution ("nixtamalised") to increase bioavailability and thereby prevent niacin deficiency (pellagra), among other important benefits, yielding "masa" (lit. dough) aka "masa de maíz" (lit. maize dough), also available in dried & ground form as "masa harina" (lit. dough flour) aka "harina de maíz" (lit. maize flour), and in its unground form, hominy. As further complication, Americans distinguish "corn flour", meaning prepared from maize endosperm only, from "maize flour" for use of whole maize — the former, neutral-flavoured; the latter, much more nutritious.

Origin of the naming mess: Originally, North America shared with Mother England the language's original meaning of "corn" to mean cereal grains generically (from Old English "corn" meaning single seed of any cereal plant, orig. from Proto-Germanic "kurnam" meaning small seed). The colonists got the gift of maize from native peoples, therefore at first calling it "Indian corn". Later, in the USA and Canada, "Indian corn" got worn down to just "corn", while the original meaning of "corn" was lost, locally. "Maize" is thus now the least-ambiguous term in international contexts, though many Americans either don't know that word or reserve it for variants from Latin-American (and Spanish) cooking.

4 Oyster sauce is made from mixing oyster extracts, sugar, salt, water, and corn starch, sometimes darkened with caramel, heated and bottled. I would advise being careful to pick a quality sauce, owing to risk of dangerous contaminants.

Taken from: Lawrence C.C. Chu's classic cookbook Chef Chu's Distinctive Cuisine Of China, page 125, published 1980 by Harper and Row, which can be checked out in scanned format at Internet Archive. Thank you! (Chu's the chef / restaurateur of beloved local restaurant Chef Chu's, in Los Altos, California.)

Collected and re-published at http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/recipes/guangzhou-oyster-beef-strips.html by Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> on Sep. 30, 2026. Individual recipes are free from copyright. Share and enjoy!

(If I have any copyright title in my own very minor contributions to this page — not my intention — they were created in 2026 by Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> and licensed for use under CC0. I have thereby waived all copyright, compilation copyright, and related or neighbouring rights to this work. This work is published from: United States of America.)