Tomato Beef

Recipe from Lawrence C.C. Chu



This popular Cantonese dish is most frequently found in the metropolitan cities of China, perhaps because the tomato was introduced into China many, many years ago, by foreign visitors. In fact, the Chinese word for tomato identifies it as a "foreign" fruit.

Yields:

6-8 servings

Time Required:

Ingredients:

Marinade



Seasonings


Preparation:

Slice flank steak against the grain ⅛ by 1 by ½" (3x25x13 mm) thick. Combine with MARINADE ingredients in the order listed, mixing well. Let stand for 10 mins.

Combine slightly smashed black beans with garlic and oil; set aside.

To oil-blanch, set wok over high heat for 1 min. Add 2 cups oil and heat to 300°F (150°C). Add beef, blanching until redness is gone. Remove and drain.

To stir-fry, remove all but 3 Tbsp. (45 mL) oil from wok. Add black bean mixture and stir-fry for 30 secs. until fragrant. Add white onion and green pepper; stir-fry for 30 secs. Return beef to wok along with tomatoes and green on-ions; stir-fry for 1 min. Add SEASONINGS, mix well and bring to a boil. Thicken with 1 Tbsp. cornstarch paste and sprinkle with sesame oil to serve.

Author's Notes

You can easily use this recipe as a meat sauce for Pan-Fried Noodles (recipe below). Just substitute ketchup6 for the black bean mixture, and add a little more sugar.



Pan-Fried Noodles

Made from simple boiled noodles, Pan-Fried Noodles are the authentic Chinese way of preparing Chow Mein.

Yields:

6 servings

Time Required:

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Prepare Fresh Noodles according to that recipe's instructions.

To pan-fry, heat cast-iron or other heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. When hot, add oil and swirl pan to coat sides. When oil is hot, add boiled noodles, spreading evenly over bottom of pan. Brown on the bottom without disturbing, for 5-6 mins., or until golden brown: carefully turn over, and brown other side. Remove to a paper towel to drain; serve immediately.



Fresh Noodles & Wrappers

Here's an all-purpose noodle recipe that can easily be adapted to making fresh egg roll and won-ton wrappers, too.

Yields:

6-8 servings

Time Required:

Ingredients:



Preparation:

Needed: 1 cloth handkerchief (to wrap around corn starch).

Mound flour in a large mixing bowl or on a work surface. Make a deep well in the centre, and pour in egg, water, and salt. Using a chopstick or fork, mix ingredients well, and then knead dough into a stiff ball. Cover with a damp cloth, and let stand for 10 mins.

Meanwhile, spoon corn starch into the centre of the handkerchief, Holding all 4 corners, shake corn starch down into a "bag" and tie securely with string. Set aside.

To shape, knead dough by hand for 4-5 mins., dusting the bread and dough with corn starch bag to prevent sticking. Using a rolling pin, roll dough out into a rectangle about ⅛" (3 mm) thick.

Roll up rectangle evenly onto the rolling pin, pressing down firmly and evenly, to further stretch the dough. Unroll the dough, dust with corn starch on both sides, and roll up on rolling pin again. (Change the position, so that all the dough remains about the same thickness.) Repeat this procedure until the dough is 1⁄16" (1.5 mm) thick all over.

To cut, unroll the dough for the last time, but unfolding it in such a way that pleats are created. The pleats should be about 2" (5 cm) wide. Using a sharp cleaver or knife, slice straight across the folds, making strips 1⁄16" (1.5 mm) wide. Cut all the way through, and cut the entire length of the dough. Carefully lift up the top layer (pleat), of noodles, and unfold.

To cook, bring 2 qts. (1.9 L) water to a boil in a large pot. Add noodles, stirring to separate, and return to a boil. Pour in cold water, then bring to a boil again. Remove, and pour noodles through a colander; rinse under cold water, and drain well. Mix with oil, to serve.Variation: Egg Roll Wrappe$rs and Won-Ton Wrappers. Follow the same procedure in making noodles, and roll out as directed, until a thickness of 1⁄16" (1.5 mm) is reached. Using a ruler and a sharp cleaver or knife, cut dough into 7" (18 cm) squares for egg roll wrappers, or 3 ½" (9 cm) squares for won-ton wrappers. Dust with corn starch, and then stack them; wrap in plastic until ready to use.


1 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.

2 "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.

3 Fermented black beans ("dou chi" in Mandarin, "dul see" in Cantonese) are whole black soybeans that have been fermented with salt, adding a salty, savoury, umami flavour — not to be confused with regular (non-soy) black beans similarly treated. They are available in either plastic bags/pouches or cardboard canisters. Read ingredient labels carefully. As these beans are sold whole, and Chef Chu wants them "smashed", the latter's your job.

4 Minced is better. Crushing vegetables breaks all of the constituent cellulose-rich cells' walls and has unfortunate consequences to the food's tastes, particularly in the case of garlic, the crushed paste of which easily becomes bitter, lacking flavour nuance, and sometimes picking up a metallic aftertaste.

So, think of this as your motivation to get a nice, really sharp 8" (20 cm) chef's knife for mincing (producing 1⁄16" = 1.5 mm cuts), and a good cutting board.

5 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.

6 Chu wrote "catsup", still in 1980 the predominant US spelling, thereafter (mostly) altered by corporate marketing to "ketchup" .

Taken from: Lawrence C.C. Chu's classic cookbook Chef Chu's Distinctive Cuisine Of China, page 137, 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/tomato-beef.html by Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> on Oct. 5, 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.)