Stir-fried beef with pickled rakkyo and peppers on rice
Sweet-and-sour pickled rakkyo stir-fried with tender beef and green and red peppers — tangy, crunchy and punchy, ready in fifteen minutes to lift your appetite and spirits.
- 28 min
- Serves 2
- Stir-fry
- Easy
Why it suits you: Qi-stagnant types are prone to low moods, a tight chest and frequent sighing, and Chushu's muggy heat and 'autumn fatigue' make them gloomier and less hungry. Pickled rakkyo is the herb xie bai, which frees the yang, disperses constraint and moves qi — a classic for opening the chest; peppers add zing, beef boosts qi, and the tangy crunch is reviving.
Method
Prep 20 min · Cook 8 min- 1Slice the beef thinly against the grain and mix with the soy sauce, cornflour, 1 tbsp water and a little sesame oil. Leave for 15 minutes, then stir in a little oil.
- 2Drain the rakkyo and halve them. Cut the peppers into pieces and crush the garlic.
- 3Heat the oil, spread the beef out in the pan over a high heat, sear for 30 seconds, then stir-fry until about 70 per cent cooked and set aside.
- 4Fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant, stir-fry the peppers for 1 minute, add the rakkyo and pickling liquid, return the beef and toss over a high heat. Serve with hot rice.
Cautions
- Pickled rakkyo contains sugar and salt, so six or seven are enough if you're watching your blood sugar; leave out the pickling liquid if you have acid reflux.
Chef's tips
- Mixing a little oil into the marinated beef before cooking stops the slices clumping; add the rakkyo last, as they soften and weep if cooked too long.
The TCM view
Rakkyo, the herb xie bai, is pungent, bitter and warm, freeing the yang, dispersing knots and moving stagnant qi; the Jingui Yaolüe pairs it with trichosanthes fruit for chest obstruction. Beef is sweet and neutral, strengthening the spleen and stomach and building qi and blood; peppers are fragrant, whetting the appetite and moving qi; ginger settles the stomach. Together they open the chest and boost qi.
