Beef Ampalaya

Beef ampalaya is a Filipino dish made with thinly sliced beef and ampalaya, that will go with steamed rice as a scrumptious combination. This yummy kitchen beef ampalaya recipe will show you how to cook beef in a simple way.

Beef Ampalaya Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 piece ampalaya
• ¼ kilo beef (sliced into thin strips)
• 1 onion (sliced)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• ½ cup water

Directions:

1. Cut the ampalaya in half (vertically) and then scrape the seeds and white pith. Then, slice into thin pieces.
2. To remove the bitter taste, place the ampalaya in a bowl and rub it with salt. Let it sit for 5 minutes then soak it in water for 10 minutes. Then, lightly squeeze the ampalaya. Rinse well with water.
3. Prepare the beef and cut it into thin slices. Marinate the beef in soy sauce, oyster sauce brown sugar and cornstarch. Mix thoroughly until well combined. Season with some pepper. Set aside and let this marinade for a few hours.
4. Heat a little oil in a pan. Add the onions and garlic and saute until light brown and aromatic. Add the marinated beef and stir fry for a few minutes.
5. Add some water to help cook the meat. Let it simmer until the sauce thickens.
6. Add the ampalaya and then stir fry for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat off.
7. Transfer the Beef ampalaya to a serving plate. Enjoy this together with some hot steaming rice. Yum!

What is Ampalaya?

The king of the vegetables is back! Your favorite ampalaya is so much delicious when served together with beef. Ampalaya is one of the most controversial among the veggies. Not because everyone loves it, but because many people hate it. Unlike other veggies with a mild flavor, the ampalaya has a strong bitter one. And for some, being able to eat ampalaya is a “bragging right”.

Ampalaya is a long, green-coloured vegetable with a wrinkled skin. The popularity of the ampalaya is very evident during the nutrition month. During my elementary years, kids who eat ampalaya are “praised” for being able to tolerate the bitterness of the ampalaya.

In my case, I never get to hate ampalaya even when I know that it’s bitter. For me, it only depends on the cooking. The natural bitterness of the ampalaya is actually tasty, but needs to be lessened just a bit. We have been enjoying ampalaya for a lot of dishes like ginisang ampalaya with egg (the most popular one), rellenong ampalaya, and as a part of pinakbet.

Amplaya is a type of vine, and is very easy to grow at home. Within 60-75 days, you can already have your harvest!

Regarding nutrition, did you know that ampalaya is packed with Vitamin C? Other vitamins and minerals you can get from the ampalaya include Vitamin A, zinc, folate and potassium. 

Beef Ampalaya in Oyster Sauce

Happy nutrition month! Since July is the nutrition month, each student from my niece’s class were assigned to make a short vlog on a veggie recipe they like. As her fave tita and cook, of course I am to the rescue. The veggies were raffled, and the one assigned to her was ampalaya.

Usual people might think of the simple ginisang ampalaya with egg, but of course we’d like to level up. Let’s make the simple ampalaya a 5-star dish as we transform it to a beef ampalaya recipe! This recipe is a bit similar to the beef brocolli but uses ampalaya for the veggies. I bet you haven’t tried this recipe before!

If you want to introduce ampalaya to someone, or want an ampalaya-hater to love this veggie, you should really try making this dish! With both meat and veggies, kanin nalang ang kulang! You can also try some beef ampalaya with oyster sauce or beef ampalaya with mushrooms!

TECHNIQUES ON HOW TO MAKE NOT BITTER AMPALAYA

There are a lot of tips from our lolos and lolas on how to lessen the bitter taste of the amplaya. Let me share some of them with you.

1. This first hack is the most common one and the one which will be used in this recipe. After you thinly slice your ampalaya into half moons, rub it with salt and then soak in water for atleast 5 minutes.

•  The second one is simply removing the white pith of the ampalaya because it is believed that this is the part which makes the amplaya bitter. For this hack, no need to add salt, just remove the white pith.

• The third one is almost similar to the first one. Simply soak your sliced ampalaya in salt and water mixture and leave it for around 10 to 15 minutes. Then rinse before cooking.
• The fourth one might be a rare and mysterious hack but it was actually working for me. The rule is once you hold the ampalaya, until the end of the cooking process, you should be SMILING all the time. My lolo said that the ampalaya sense the negativity from the person who cooks which is why you should smile.

Reducing the bitterness of ampalaya is quite a challenge. To be sure, you can apply all of these hacks for a surely not-so-bitter ampalaya!

Cooking Tips for Ampalaya

• You can cut the amplaya however you like but it is highly recommended to make them thin. This is to help extract all the excess bitterness when you rub with salt. Thin slices also cooks more than large chunks. (Large chunks might still be crunchy).

HOW TO COOK BEEF AMPALAYA

Preparing the ampalaya requires extra steps but your effort is surely worth it. Once you’ve tried any of the hacks listed above to reduce the bitter taste of the ampalaya, then the rest of the steps will be super easy.

Before anything else, marinate the beef in a simple mixture of soy sauce, oyster sauce and brown sugar. You can add other seasonings if you like.

Start the dish by sauteing the aromatics until fragrant. Next, saute the marinated beef slices until it changes color. Take note that beef cooks faster than other meats, so be careful not to overcook it unless it might become chewy.

Then, add the sliced ampalaya. It will only take around 2 minutes of stir frying to cook the ampalaya (unless you want it super soft). Don’t forget to season them before turning the heat off.

Serve the beef ampalaya on top of a big bowl of hot rice. Yum!

Beef Ampalaya Recipe in Tagalog

Mga Sangkap:

• 1 piraso ampalaya
• ¼ kilo baka (hiniwa ng maninipis na strips)
• 1 sibuyas  (hiniwa)
• 2 kutsara toyo
• 1 kutsara oyster sauce
• 1 kutsara cornstarch
• 1 kutsara asukal na pula
• ½ tasa tubig

Paano Lutuin:

1. Hatiin (ng patayo) ang ampalaya at alisin ang mga buto at ang puting parte sa loob nito. Hiwain ng maninipis.
2. Para maalis ang pait, ilagay ang mga ampalaya sa bowl at lagyan ito ng asin. Hayaan lang ito ng 5 minuto at saka ibabad sa tubig ng 10 minuto. Pagkatapos nito, medyo pigain ang ampalaya at hugasan.
3. Ihanda ang baka at hiwain ng maninipis. Imarinate ito sa toyo, oyster sauce, asukal at cornstarch. Haluin ng mabuti at timplahan ng paminta. Hayaan itong naka-marinate ng ilang oras.
4. Magpainit ng konting mantika. Igisa ang sibuyas at bawang hanggang maging light brown at mabango. Ilagay ang marinated beef at istir fry ng ilang minuto.
5. Magdagdag ng tubig para lumambot ang karne. Hayaan itong maluto hanggang lumapot ang sauce.
6. Ilagay ang ampalaya at istir fry ng 2 minuto. Timplahan ito ng asin at paminta. Patayin ang apoy.
7. Ilipat ang beef ampalaya sa serving plate. Enjoyin ito kasama ng mainit na kanin. Yum!