Recipe Instructions:
Ingredients
1½ tbsp oil (vegetable, canola, peanut)
500g / 1 lb beef mince / ground beef (Note 1)
2 garlic cloves , finely minced
1 tsp chilli flakes / red pepper flakes (adjust to your taste)
3 tbsp water
Firecracker sauce:
2 tbsp soy sauce , light or all-purpose (Note 2)
2 tbsp rice vinegar (Note 3)
4 tbsp sriracha sauce (Note 4)
4 tbsp brown sugar (tightly packed)
To serve (optional!):
Rice, soba or vermicelli noodles
1 green onion , finely sliced
1 tsp sesame seeds
Diced cucumber, julienned carrot, finely sliced red radish
Extra sriracha sauce , if you dare!
Instructions
Sauce: Mix Firecracker sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
Cook beef: Heat oil in a large frypan over high heat. Add beef and cook, breaking it up as you go, until you can no longer see raw meat (2½ minutes). Add garlic and chilli flakes and cook for 1 minute.
Caramelise beef: Add Firecracker sauce ingredients, stir to coat the beef. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring only every minute or so initially, then more towards the end, until the sauce reduces and you can see the beef caramelising. Caramelise well for good flavour!
Water: Add the water and cook for 1 minute (the water makes the beef saucier!)
Serve over rice, sprinkled with sesame seeds, green onion and a squirt of extra sriracha if you're feeling brave! Add a pile of vegetables of choice on the side. Dive in!
Notes
Spiciness - Fairly spicy but not blow-your-head-off levels. Reduce spiciness firstly by reducing or omitting the chilli flakes. Then reduce the sriracha, if need be. Try not to reduce sriracha because it's a key flavouring.
Sweetness - I use minimum sugar to be able to get good beef caramelisation and balance the spiciness/tang of siracha. If you reduce the sugar the spice comes through a quite a bit more and is not the typical Firecracker sauce flavour, albeit still very tasty!
