Beef Ho Fun (Beef Chow Fun)

Beef Chow Fun, or Beef Ho Fun, is a traditional Cantonese dish comprising of stir-fried beef and bean sprouts cooked fast and high with rice noodles.

For this recipe to work, you need to move quickly and work over high heat. Therefore, have ALL your ingredients ready to go.

What sort of beef should I use?

Skirt and sirloin are both good cuts to use. I always prefer to buy whole steaks and slice myself, but if you’re inclined to use the pre-cut supermarket beef strips, zero judgement.

You need to slice as thinly as you can – which I can now hear you internally screaming – but if you’ve got some decent knife skills and a sharp knife, you’ll be just fine.

But you don’t? No fear. Pop your steak into the freezer for about 30 minutes, this gives it just enough time to firm up the fat (and not freeze) and will make it 10x easier to slice thinly.

Why does my beef taste tough?

My dear friend, it’s probably because you’ve overcooked it! Thinly sliced beef needs a brief flash in the pan before being removed. I’m talking two minutes max before it’s done (if that).

What is the difference between dark soy sauce and light soy sauce?

The likelihood is, you’re more familiar with the flavours of light soy sauce, which is more readily available in UK supermarkets, but if you use a lot of soy sauce in your cooking, I urge you to have a bottle of each. Light soy sauce is saltier than dark soy sauce, which has a stronger soy flavour, and is slightly sweet. I tend to use a combo of both when cooking to balance out those crucial flavours.

What noodles should I use?

Beef Ho Fun require those extra-wide style rice noodles. I can only find these online, or in my local Asian supermarket so if you can, I’d venture there. However, most supermarkets stock good-quality rice noodles, that although thinner still work. Fresh are best if you can find them, but I just pre-soak dried ones.