America's Test Kitchen

-Today on "America's Test Kitchen," Lan makes Bridget stir-fried beef and gai lan, Adam reveals his top picks for bamboo steamers, and Dan makes Julia congee.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

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-We all know the Chinese-American menu item stir-fried beef and broccoli.

I happen to love it, but I'm really excited because Lan's here, and she's come with a much earlier version that features gai lan, or Chinese broccoli.

Really want to find out more about this recipe, but I know you had a pretty amazing conversation.

-I did.

I was looking for an expert to talk to, to learn how to make this dish, and I put out a call to one of my childhood cooking heroes -- Martin Yan.

-Amazing.

-I grew up -- Yeah, I grew up watching "Yan Can Cook."

We chatted.

He was super generous.

And I can't wait to show you what he taught me.

So we're gonna start with the beef.

And when you look at the more modern recipes, they're calling for a pound, maybe 12 ounces of flank steak.

-Mm.

-I'm going back to a more veg-heavy version.

-Great.

-We're only using eight ounces of beef here.

We're using an eight-ounce center-cut filet mignon.

And I'm going to start by cutting it into quarters.

It's such a soft and tender cut that it's really hard to slice thinly.

-Yes.

-So we're gonna pop it in the freezer just to firm it up.

It'll take about 20 to 25 minutes.

-Okay.

-All right.

Now that the beef is in the freezer, let's prep our gai lan.

-Okay.

-We're gonna start by cutting the leaves from the stalk.

And I'm just gonna cut the leaves into 1-1/2-inch-wide pieces.

If there are any bits of stem or floret, they'll all go into that same bowl.

-Great.

-The stalks I'm going to cut on the bias into 1/4-inch-thick pieces.

I like to use kind of a steep angle.

I think you just get larger pieces that are more fun to eat.

So now we just need to wait for that beef to firm up, and then we'll continue.

All right, Bridget, it's been 20 minutes.

This is nice and firm.

-Sure is.

-Now, I'm gonna set these on one of the cut sides.

It doesn't really matter which one.

And I'm looking for 1/4-inch-thick slices.

I've got pretty good knife skills, but I would not try to do this without par-freezing the meat.

-Right.

-Some of these are a little bit wider or narrower than others, but the cook time is really dependent on how thick they are.

So we just want to make sure they're 1/4-inch thick.

To marinate this beef, I've got three ingredients.

It's really simple.

I've got 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of cornstarch, and 1 teaspoon of a Chinese rice wine called Shaoxing.

The two liquids are seasoning the beef, and the cornstarch is kind of helping that liquid to cling to the meat.

-Mm.

-It'll offer some protection when we go to cook this.

And it's really just a matter of mixing until everything is well-coated.

Last up, because it's a stir-fry, we have to prep all the other ingredients.

Once we start cooking, there is no stopping and running around.

-Okay.

-I've got 4 teaspoons of vegetable oil here, and I'm going to add 1 1/2 teaspoons of grated ginger and 1/4 teaspoon of minced garlic.

This oil is gonna flavor the beef later on, and I just want to have it ready so that we're not waiting on it.

Last up is our sauce.

It starts with 1/2 cup of chicken broth.

To that, I'm adding one of the most important ingredients to beef and broccoli, and that's oyster sauce.

I've got 2 tablespoons of it.

Next up, I've got 4 teaspoons of Shaoxing, so more of that wine.

It's kind of a little bit like mirin -- not as sweet, little funkier.

-Mm.

-2 teaspoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of cornstarch.

That's gonna thicken our sauce.

And 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil just for a little pop of flavor.

-I love toasted sesame oil.

Oh!

-Quick whisk.

We're ready to cook.

All right, Bridget, I've got a 14-inch flat-bottom carbon-steel wok here.

I'll crank the heat to high.

And unlike some of the Western recipes we do, where we start with some oil in the pan and we wait for it to smoke or shimmer, when you're working with a traditional wok, there's already a film of oil in there because we're not washing it with a ton of soap and water.

-Right.

-And so, the pan itself will start smoking when it's ready.

We don't have to start with any oil.

You can actually see some smoke coming up from the wok right now.

Let's start.

-Okay.

-I've got 1 teaspoon of oil here, and I'm going to add our stalks first.

I'm looking for these to get tender, spotty brown, but not soft.

I want to keep the food moving in the wok because it's super hot at the bottom, and it won't cook evenly if it's just sitting still.

Can you smell this?

-Absolutely.

-What is happening right now is we're generating a little bit of wok hei.

It is super important in Cantonese cooking to have that kind of smoky, grill-y flavor.

And it comes from the cooking method and the wok itself.

And the term itself, "wok hei," was coined by Grace Young.

She was also super generous in sharing her thoughts about this recipe.

-So how long for this?

-Three to four minutes.

-Okay.

As Lan mentioned, cooking food in a seasoned, hot wok imparts the legendary savor of wok hei, which means "breath of the wok" or "spirit of the wok."

But what exactly is this complex culinary phenomenon?

The fragrance of wok hei can be primarily attributed to numerous flavor compounds that form when oil gets hot.

When food containing moisture, like vegetables or noodles, is tossed in a hot wok set over a flame, the water rapidly evaporates, launching tiny particles of oil into the air.

As the oil passes through the air over the edge of the wok, it breaks down and can even ignite, forming smoky, metallic, briny, complex aroma compounds that flavor the food.

With repeated use, those compounds get embedded in a seasoning layer.

Now, the wok itself contains the wok hei flavor, and when that seasoning gets hot, a bit of that flavor transfers to food.

The scientific quest to fully understand wok hei is ongoing, but this recipe will ensure that you get a breath of it at home.

[ Sizzling ] -How great does that look?

Want to get them out of here so they don't keep cooking.

-Lovely bit of color there.

-Yeah.

Now that the stalks are done, let's move on to the leaves.

I've got 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil, and to that, I'm adding 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, just to flavor it, and 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic.

Now, this is gonna go fast.

It's only gonna take 15 seconds before the garlic is toasty.

And I want to keep moving it around.

-Oh, yeah.

-Just looking for it to pick up some color and smell good.

Now we'll add our leaves.

-Mmm!

-I'm not looking to fully cook this.

I'm looking for the leaves to get kind of a dark jade green.

This will take about 45 seconds for all of these leaves to wilt down.

All right, so this color is looking great.

-Yes.

-You can see the waxiness has gone away.

But to finish cooking it, I'm gonna add 1/4 cup of chicken broth.

-Mm-hmm.

-Now what I want is to cook all of that liquid off.

I don't want that broth to kind of dilute our sauce and thin it out.

So this will take two to three minutes to kind of dry it out.

You can see this is really dry, and the leaves have really collapsed down.

Now, I'm gonna land these on our serving platter.

This was another one of those things that Martin mentioned.

He said he'd had a couple of versions of this dish where, instead of tossing all of the ingredients together, people would make a bed from the leaves and then pour the sauce and the beef on top.

-Mm.

-And not only does it look great, the dish actually eats better when you do it this way.

What happens is, the leaves are kind of folded up and scrunched up right now.

When we pour the sauce on top, you get the perfect amount of sauce in the leaves.

When you toss those leaves in the sauce, they kind of become sponges, and they're coated in too much sauce.

And every bite is a little squidgy.

-A little sloppy.

Okay.

-Yeah.

So last up, we're gonna cook our beef.

And I've got that flavoring oil we made earlier with the ginger and garlic.

It's just gonna go right in.

It'll take about 20 seconds for this to become fragrant because there's a little bit more stuff.

-Ooh!

[ Sizzling ] -And I'm just gonna add our beef.

And we'll just move this around.

It's only gonna take maybe 90 seconds for this to cook.

So I really want to move it around and break it up.

So we're getting close here.

You'll notice that most of the pink is gone.

And I'm really just looking for all of that pink to go away.

That oyster sauce is bringing so much savoriness, and it's hard to see in this dark wok, but there's some fond building up in there, and that's gonna flavor the sauce.

-Right.

-And that's really what we're after.

So this looks great.

I'm gonna return our stalks to this.

-Mmm!

-Add our sauce.

-Yes!

-Give it a quick stir to get that cornstarch off the bottom.

-Right.

Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!

-I know it looks kind of soupy right now, but this is enough sauce for the beef and the leaves.

So it's gonna look a little soupy here, but it's the right amount.

And I just want that cornstarch to thicken.

That usually takes just 30 to 60 seconds.

I can see how it's already picked up a gloss.

It's not as fluid anymore.

We're done.

-That's it.

Oh!

-All right, here we go.

So, ready to eat?

-I am so ready to eat.

Look at this.

This is stunning.

-You know what the best part about stir-fries is?

You have to serve them immediately.

-Yes!

-Can I serve you?

-Please!

-Now, I grew up eating this with jasmine rice, and it is kind of my preferred rice for stir-fries.

-Mm-hmm.

This looks spectacular.

I'm going in.

Mmm.

Crisp and crunchy but definitely cooked, not raw.

-Mm-hmm.

-What a great flavor, though.

-Yeah.

-It's that carbonized, that -- that -- the essence that you were talking about, the wok hei.

-It's hard to describe.

-It really is.

-I spoke to a food historian who said, "It's like a rainbow.

You'll know it when you see it."

-Mm!

-I love that nutty, sweet flavor of the gai lan.

-All right, the beef.

-Yeah.

-This would be the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.

Buttery.

Tender.

-Yeah.

-The sauce.

It has my favorite sauce in it, the oyster sauce.

That's the wonder sauce.

-It somehow makes the beef beefier.

And the gai lan tastes sweeter for it.

It's a great combo.

There's something lovely about going back to this more traditional approach that is more savory.

It doesn't have the sweetness of onion or bell pepper.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but, you know, change it up a little.

It's nice.

-Thanks, Lan.

This is absolutely perfection.

-We have Martin to thank.

-Get to stir-fry with a little help from your friends, and Lan certainly called upon some of the greats for help with this recipe.

And it starts by cutting par-frozen filet mignon into thin slices.

Cook the gai lan stalks first until browned.

And then cook gai lan leaves until they're vibrant and green.

And, of course, it's that beautiful super sauce that holds everything together.

So from "America's Test Kitchen," a wondrous version of beef and broccoli.

It's stir-fried beef and gai lan.

-Bamboo steamers have been used for thousands of years and with good reason.

They work with a wide variety of foods, they're relatively inexpensive and they're made from bamboo, which is a sustainable resource.

And today, Adam's gonna show us what to look for when buying a new one.

-These are super useful.

If you've gone to dim sum, you have seen these deployed by the squadron because they're used for dumplings, they're used for those bao buns.

They come in a lot of different sizes.

We chose a lineup of five here.

They're in the 10-inch-round size, which is compatible with, say, a 12-inch skillet like we have here or a 14-inch wok.

-Mm-hmm.

-Put a little water in the bottom.

The steamer goes on top, the steam rises.

They come in tiers.

We have some that have two tiers, like that one down on the end, or, say, this one has two tiers.

-Mm-hmm.

-And then that one in front of you has three tiers.

Also, one thing that we really like about these is you can see the bottom is flat.

-Yep.

-So if you're cooking something delicate that could get bent or broken in the curved interior of a collapsible metal steamer, like fish fillets... -Yep.

-...these work really well.

They're a natural material, and they do pick up odor, so you always line the tiers.

I have some parchment liners here.

Why don't you throw one in?

-I've actually never bought these.

I didn't know they made these.

I've been making them myself with parchment and a pair of scissors.

[ Both laugh ] This is a cool product.

-I'm gonna gift you a packet of these.

You know, a lot of people will use cabbage leaves or lettuce leaves, also.

-Yeah.

-So we tested these with dumplings and bao, those filled buns, in two tiers for the dumplings, three if we could, bao in one tier.

Cleaning was a very important part of the testing because this is a natural material.

They absorb those odors.

So you do want to clean them out.

You want to dry it carefully and then separate the tiers so that they air dry more, and that should help you avoid cracking and mold and getting it all misshapen and out of alignment.

In the testing, these all were pretty comparable in terms of their steaming performance, a little less comparable in terms of structural integrity.

-Interesting.

-And by that, I mean this.

If it wasn't well-made, some of these began to sort of lose their alignments.

-Yep.

-They didn't fit together quite as well.

-Mm-hmm.

-It didn't affect the steaming performance.

It just made them a little irritating to use.

The ones that stayed in alignment better were the ones down in front of you.

You can see they have those metal bands that really help them retain their shape.

Another structural issue arose.

Again, I'll show you this one.

You can see that the inside is made up of slats, and in this case, they're tied together with bamboo threads.

Over the course of the testing, some of these threads began to fray.

And, you know, we thought that they would end up trashed after a couple of years.

That one in front of you, look at those nice, thick wooden slats.

-Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

-And they're glued together.

Again, much better structural integrity there.

So those two are our winners.

The one down at the very end, that is the Juvale 10-inch bamboo steamer with steel rings.

$24, two tiers, worked beautifully, stayed well-aligned through the whole thing.

If you're steaming for a crowd and you want an extra tier, we have a three-tiered winner and that's the Hcooker three-tier kitchen bamboo steamer with stainless-steel banding, and that one is $43.

-Yeah.

So there you have it.

If you're in the market for a new bamboo steamer, check out the Juvale 10-inch bamboo steamer with steel rings.

Or if you're steaming for a crowd, check out the Hcooker three-tier kitchen bamboo steamer with stainless-steel banding.

Cooking rice down into a hearty porridge is a classic technique found all over East and Southeast Asia.

And congee is a great example of this.

And, Dan, you're a huge fan of congee.

-I am.

I really love it.

So I'm a huge rice fan in general, and I think congee speaks to the versatility of rice.

You can make it sticky and, you know, perfectly tender individual grains, or you can cook it down into a comforting porridge.

So I'm gonna start with our rice here, and I have 3/4 cup of jasmine.

-Okay.

-So even within the rice, there's a lot of variation.

Traditionally, a lot of it was made with broken rice.

So when you process rice, not every -- every grain comes out perfectly like this.

-Mm-hmm.

-Some of it's broken, and that's already really broken down, so it cooks a lot quicker that way.

But, of course, people often use whole rice for this, specifically to make congee.

I just love jasmine for how aromatic it is.

-Mm-hmm.

-You can use long grain, and there's, you know, other rices that are used, as well.

-Okay.

-So the first step is we're going to rinse our rice.

So the rinsing is an important step.

You know, rinsing rice in general is a really good thing to do.

Here we have plenty of starch in the rice itself.

So we're not short on -- short on starch at all.

-Gotcha.

-The exterior starch can cause some foaming while we're cooking it.

And you can get boil-overs, which, you know, I'm sure you've experienced with oatmeal and that kind of stuff.

-Mm-hmm.

-So this actually helps prevent that.

-Interesting.

-So that looks good.

It's running clear.

Like to shake it and then give it a few good drops like this, just to make sure we've gotten that water off.

I'm gonna transfer it over to our big Dutch oven.

I'm gonna start by adding 1 cup of chicken broth.

-Just a cup?

-Just a cup.

So a little bit chicken broth to add some nice meatiness and depth.

And next I'm gonna add -- There's a little bit salt in the chicken broth, but I'm gonna add 3/4 teaspoon.

Next up, I have 9 cups of water.

-That's a lot of water.

-Lot of water.

-Now I get why you used the big pot.

-Yep, you need the big pot for it.

I'm just gonna bring this up to a boil over high heat.

So the congee is up to a boil here.

We're gonna reduce the heat.

We want a vigorous simmer here.

We're actually gonna cook this a fairly long time.

Congee is often cooked for 90 minutes, sometimes even more.

And it's really, again, a personal preference thing of how much you want the rice to break down.

You can cook the rice until it blossoms like a flower, is one descriptor for it.

-Mm!

-You can also cook it until almost no grains are visible.

So we're gonna go something a little bit more in the middle there.

So we're gonna do a vigorous simmer to speed things up.

A gentle simmer, it can take a really long time.

And boiling can be good, too.

You see that a lot.

But you can get boil-overs, right?

And so what we want to do is eliminate those.

So we're gonna use the lid here, but we're gonna put a wooden spoon in like that.

-Ahh!

-So we're gonna have a little bit of space for water to evaporate.

We're gonna do this for about 45 to 50 minutes, until it's really silky and tender.

And I'll show you what that looks like.

-Okay.

To turn rice into congee, you have to cook it for a lot longer than you would if you were making, say, a pilaf or even risotto.

To explain, let's take a closer look inside a grain of rice.

Each grain of rice contains hundreds of thousands of starch granules, each one made up of long, tightly-packed starch molecules.

As the rice cooks, those granules start to absorb water and swell, and the water pushes the starch molecules apart.

This is called gelation.

During this process, some of the starch molecules leach out of the granules and onto the surface of the rice.

This is what causes grains of rice to stick to each other.

With continued cooking, some of the granules burst entirely, releasing their starch.

Risotto is an example of rice cooked to this point.

As more granules burst, the starch fills the cooking liquid.

The long starch molecules tangle with each other, making the liquid viscous.

And it's at this point that the rice has turned into congee.

-Eggs are a really common topping for congee.

I think probably the most traditional is the 1,000-year egg... -Mmm!

-...which is really tasty and wonderful, kind of chopped up on top.

But you see hard-boiled eggs.

You even see raw eggs sometimes.

We're gonna make some jammy eggs.

-Jammy eggs?

-Yeah, so they're, like, partway between a soft-cooked egg and a hard-boiled egg, and that yolk is, like, thick and creamy.

It's really, really nice.

-Mmm!

-So I have 1/2 inch of water in this pot here.

And it's boiling, and I'm gonna drop my eggs in.

Not drop them.

I'm gonna place them in really carefully.

-It's not a lot of water.

-It's not a lot of water.

-So it's not even covering the eggs.

-Nope, not at all.

So we're gonna cover this up, and we're gonna cook them for eight minutes here.

-Ahh.

-Starting them in the hot water like this is key.

It's gonna make them a lot easier to peel.

All right.

That's been eight minutes.

Take the lid off there.

We're gonna pop over to the sink here.

-All right.

-I'm gonna drain the water off and run some cold water over them.

That's gonna help stop the cooking.

But it really just makes them easier to handle.

I find if you're running them under water, you can pretty easily peel them while they're out here.

Yeah, this is just gonna come right off.

I'll pop them in this bowl, and we're gonna work on another topping.

-Okay.

-We're gonna make some fried shallots.

-Mmm!

-We're gonna use a microwave technique, which I really like a lot.

So I'm starting with three shallots that have been sliced thin.

If you have a mandoline, this is a great time to use it.

It doesn't have to be super, super thin, but they all need to be pretty equal so that they cook at the same rate.

-That makes sense.

-To that, I'm gonna add 1/2 cup of vegetable oil.

Any neutral oil is fine here.

-Mm-hmm.

-This is gonna go into the microwave for about five minutes.

[ Microwave beeps ] Okay, that has been five minutes.

And you can see that the shallots have shrunk down below the level of the oil.

That's good.

That means we're deep frying.

I'm giving them a quick stir just to even out the temperature, then I'll go back into the microwave now for another two minutes.

Repeat the stirring and microwaving every two minutes until they're starting to get golden brown, about six minutes.

Ooh, these are starting to look really good.

So it's been about six minutes.

We want them to be a little bit more brown, but I'm gonna drop the intervals to 30 seconds because it goes super fast at this point.

Beautiful.

-Goodness, those smell good!

-Don't they?

Now, the key is to get them out of here right away.

They can go from beautiful to burnt pretty quickly.

-Ahh.

-So what's interesting is, they come out really soft, even at that point, and they don't get crispy until they cool down.

-Aha!

-While they're still soft like this, that's when you want to hit them with some salt.

All right.

Those look beautiful.

-Delicious.

-So it's been about 50 minutes.

Our rice is done.

And you can see it's turned into this really luscious texture.

So we've burst a ton of starch granules, and all that liquid around it, you can see, is really thickened and beautiful.

It's really nice.

Yeah, this is just pure comfort food.

So good.

-Look at all these toppings!

-Yeah, so we have lots of toppings to choose from.

So we have some chili oil here.

We have some soy sauce and some black vinegar, cilantro, scallion, ginger.

-Ooh!

I'm gonna copy you.

-All right.

So I'm gonna do one half an egg.

You can go even more if you want.

-All right.

-I'm gonna do a little scallion, a little bit of julienned ginger, which adds tons of freshness.

And we also have got some chopped roasted peanuts, which are really nice.

-Mmm!

-And some fried shallots.

-Oh, yeah.

-All right.

And I'm just gonna go with a little bit of black vinegar on mine, just to -- just to brighten it up.

All right.

Let's dig in.

-All right.

Mmm.

-Mmm!

That's delicious!

-That's so good.

-You know, you said "comfort food" earlier.

I get it now.

I could easily tuck into a big bowl of this if I was feeling a little under the weather or a on a rainy day.

-Totally.

Yep.

And you haven't even tried your jammy egg yet.

-I haven't.

-Got to -- Got to have a little bit of that.

Adds so much richness.

-All right, here we go.

-Mmm.

-Mmm!

I really love this.

-It's really good, right?

-Yeah.

Thank you for showing me how to make it.

-You're so welcome.

-So if you want to make a big bowl of comforting congee, start with a high ratio of water to rice, cook for almost an hour at a vigorous simmer, and top it with whatever you like, which, in our case, means jammy eggs and fried shallots.

From "America's Test Kitchen," a soothing and savory recipe for congee.

You can find this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with select episodes and our product reviews, at our website, americastestkitchen.com/tv.

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