Ginger Beef Recipe (A Calgary Favourite)
In our province, there is a constant war for superiority. We have the firm belief that Edmonton is the superior city. And of course, people who live in Calgary believe that Calgary is the best. One opinion is correct, and the other is wrong. (Spoiler: Edmonton is better.)
There is, however, one thing that Calgary has going for it: ginger beef. Much like Edmonton and its green onion cakes, ginger beef is Calgary’s contribution to Chinese Canadian cuisine, and it is absolutely delicious!
Ginger beef was invented in 1975 by two sisters from Hong Kong, Louise Tang and Lily Wong, operating out of the Silver Inn Restaurant. Supposedly, it was invented as a way to satisfy the Alberta palette that loves french fries and beef.
(We’re sad to report that Silver Inn has recently closed, so we don’t have an excuse to expense a trip to Calgary to try the OG.)
Join us as we show you how to make the one good thing to ever come from Calgary. Let’s makes some ginger beef!
There are four components to making ginger beef: beef, batter, stir fried veggies and sauce. We decided to try two different versions of the sauce to see which one was more like the one we know and love.
Beef & Batter
For the beef you’re going to want to choose a flank steak (about 1lb), and thinly slice it into strips. Once your beef is cut up, it’s time to make your batter!
Ingredients:
1 ¼ cup cornstarch
1 egg
1 cup water
3 tbsp flour
½ tbsp white pepper (optional)
All you have to do is combine all of the above ingredients in a bowl. Yes, your batter will look super runny.
Forbidden soup.
Despite how thin it looks, we did find that the batter puffs up and becomes a crispy coating when you deep fry. That being said, next time we make this we’re going to try and either reduce the amount of water or increase the cornstarch to see how that does. We did have a decent amount of batter on our beef, but when compared to the restaurant version, it definitely was not as much.
Guess which one is the ginger beef from a restaurant.
If you were smart, you’d have started to heat up your oil beforehand so it’s ready to go. If you have never deep fried anything at home before, then read this first. TL;DR: heat up vegetable or canola oil in a pot, and check the temperature with an instant read thermometer to check that it’s 350°F. You can use metal tongs or a spider strainer to get your fried beef out of the pot when it’s nice and golden brown!
Stir Fry Veggies
What veggies get stir fried along with ginger beef will vary from restaurant to restaurant. We ordered ginger beef from All Happy Family Restaurant, and it came with green bell pepper, carrot, and onion. According to Wikipedia, ginger beef at the very least should have carrot or onion (see: variations).
Veggies are 100% customizable and up to you. We used:
1 large carrot
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
½ white onion
And of course ginger beef should also have:
Garlic — we used 6 cloves, but this is something you can customize to your taste.
Ginger — use a good chunk, but like the above, you’ll want to customize this to your taste. We recommend starting out with about two thumbs worth first. If you want the ginger flavor to be more prominent, add more the next time you make it!
You’ll want to julienne your veggies, and then you can either julienne or mince your garlic and ginger (we minced). Once all of your veggies are prepped, it’s time to fry! We don’t own a wok, but if you have one, definitely use it! We just used a regular frying pan and some oil to fry our veggies.
Make the sauce before you start to sauté your veggies. Read on!
Sauce & Assembly
Ingredients
¼ cup light soy sauce
2 tablespoons white vinegar
3 tablespoons mushroom soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine
½ cup water
¼ cup sugar
½ tablespoon red pepper flakes (or add to taste)
Combine all the ingredients into a bowl. Stir fry your veggies. Once done, add the sauce and cook until it boils. (We found that our sauce started boiling pretty much right away.) Add the beef to the pan, and make sure to coat the beef completely with sauce. According to the recipe, you should also keep the beef, sauce, and veggies warm for an hour or two to give the flavors a chance to develop and the sauce to thicken. This is allegedly the authentic way to do it. (Note: if you do this, your ginger beef won’t be crispy, it’ll be more soggy.)
Ingredients
4 tablespoons soy sauce
6 tablespoons rice vinegar
6 tablespoons sherry*
5 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
*We didn’t have any sherry on hand, so we substituted with Chinese cooking wine
Combine all the sauce ingredients into a bowl. Stir fry your veggies. Once done, add the sauce and cook until boiling. Add a cornstarch slurry (1 tablespoon of cornstarch + 2 tablespoons of water) if you feel the sauce needs to be thicker. Add the beef to the pan and stir to combine and coat all of your beef in the sauce.
On the day of cooking, we found that the sauce had thickened nicely, so we opted to not add the cornstarch slurry as we found that the sauce had thickened nicely. Your mileage may vary.
Mediocre Thoughts
👨🍳 Trevor: Ginger beef is pretty tasty. It’s got everything you want in North American Chinese food: fried meat, a sweet and sour sauce, and just enough veggies so that you can convince yourself it’s somewhat healthy.
I’ll admit, when I was younger, I was not a fan of Chinese food, so my love for ginger beef is not something I’ve carried with me since I was a kid. But that all changed when I was a teenager, and I managed to find the one Chinese food place in our hometown that just hits different. It was located in the saddest mall food court in the world, and they only accepted cash, but I’l be damned if it wasn’t some of the best ginger beef ever. Our recipe gets pretty close to that mall chinese food flavour. If I were to make it again, I’d definitely adjust the batter to make it more crispy, let the cooked beef soak in the sauce for a few hours to get the right texture, and probably add some MSG for f l a v o u r.
👩🍳 Brittany: Alberta loves its beef, so it makes sense that ginger beef became such a hit. Crispy, beefy, sweet and a bit spicy, it has everything you want! Growing up I’ve had ginger beef at the one Chinese place in the mall food court and from the freezer aisle.
After moving to Edmonton where there are a plethora of Chinese restaurants, I’ve had my fair share of ginger beef. I don’t think I’ve ever had a ginger beef that tastes the same, and I think that’s kinda the magic of the dish. The ginger beef from Grain of Rice has a lot more of a kick to it than the ginger beef from All Happy Family Restaurant, which leans more towards sweet and sour than sweet and spicy. I’m sad to not have tried the original in Calgary, but am glad that I now know how to make it from home. I’ll definitely be playing around with the sauce recipe to get it just right!
Our Final Review
Taste: 5 hungry Calgarians out of 5 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤
Presentation: 3 f r e n c h f r i e d b e e f s out of 5 🥩🥩🥩
Affordability: 3 oh god inflation please stop out of 5 📈📈📈
Ginger beef was made for us. We’re Albertans who like french fries and beef. So of course we like ginger beef (even though there are no potatoes in it). Serve it with some rice and green onion cakes, and you have a delicious meal.
We’re giving it only a 3 for presentation because… well, it’s brown. We tried to add some green onions to liven it up and it only sorta worked. Despite it not looking like the most attractive food out there, it is really damn tasty.
The price of groceries has gone up considerably (god damn inflation), so buying beef, fresh produce, and a bunch of Chinese condiments that you don’t already have isn’t the cheapest thing on the planet. However, it definitely is worth it.
Highly Rated Ginger Beef Restaurants
If you’re ever in Alberta and want to try Ginger Beef, these places have great reviews. Every restaurant does ginger beef a little bit differently, so try a bunch to find the one you love!
Ginger Beef from All Happy Family Restaurant.
Edmonton Restaurants
Calgary Restaurants
What’s your favourite place to order ginger beef? Let us know!