Mum's "tenderised" beef in soya sauce

My version of mum's beef dish; also called "daging ketuk" by my son Johann

Growing up, this dish had got to be one of the favourites of all times in our household. We would request for it time and again and my mum would happily oblige us whenever she could. This dish is full on homeliness taste due to the simple ingredients involved; only soya sauce, salt, pepper and sugar is used. No fancy-wancy ingredient is involved. Uh, uh, nossir... Not even onion or garlic; believe me! The secret lies in the preparation and the way it's cooked.

Nowadays this dish ranks high on the list of favourites for all of my mum's grandchildren! For the daughters-in law who cook, my mum taught them how to prepare this dish herself and for the daughters-in law who don't cook due to time/career constraints, my mum taught their 'bibiks' how to do it. And as for the daughters, we learnt by observing her at work and now whenever I cook this dish for my kids, I say a silent prayer of thanks to my mum for teaching me how to cook with passion and love. The two most important ingredients that make any food taste good!


The recipe

750 g of beef (adjust the amount if you want-this is how much I had in the freezer!)
1/4 cup of soya sauce- also adjust accordingly to taste/amount of beef used ( I used the "ayam" brand, my mum would've used the "mushroom" brand from China, as I recall)
1-2 tbps granulated sugar ( I sometimes substitute with brown; just as tasty
little salt
freshly ground pepper

1. Slice the beef into 1/4 inch thick slices about 3" x 2" in length. Lay a few pieces on a board and with the back of a cleaver tenderise the meat by bashing away at it, with a medium touch; not too strong of a whack or you'll end up with minced meat! After you're satisfied that that side has received enough of a bashing, turn to the other side and bash some more, :). You still want to have the pieces of meat intact in slices; but tears are welcomed. Not to worry about that, :D
2. Place all the seasonings in a bowl big enough to hold all the meat and coat the slices with this mixture. It won't be very liquidy; it's meant to be like that. Leave aside for awhile; go make yourself a cup of coffee or tea.
   
3. When you're done with your cuppa, take out your saucepan or wok; whatever you're comfortable with, pour in some oil; probably about 3/4 of a cup. Heat it up nice.
4. Once oil is hot enough; make sure you've got the fire on medium (you don't wanna burn/overcaramelise the soya sauce and end up with bitter-tasting beef) fry beef in batches for maybe 5 - 7 minutes only. The beef is really tender from all that bashing, so there's no need to overcook- you want tender juicy pieces, baby!
   
5. After frying each batch, you'll notice that the residual oil is taking on a dark, caramelly hue and smells oh-so heavenly; that means you're doing things right...
6. when all the beef has been fried, just add a little water to the remains in the pan or wok or whatever and adjust the seasonings NOW. When you're satisfied, add all the beef back in at once and with a turn or two of your ladle, it's done.
7. Dish up and serve. Garnish as I have done (in the pic above) with fried cashewnuts and fresh coriander and serve over white rice as I did for dinner.

For leftovers the next day, you could do what I did and serve it like this:-

In a bagel for lunch with some lettuce, tomato and sliced fresh button mushroom! Hardly needed any other dressing. YUmmmmms.