WELCOME TO OUR KITCHEN: We're making beef chow fun!

Beef chow fun! Is there better take-out? (Or take-away?) It's always been one of our favorites. But we live in rural New England . . . so we have to make our own.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough. We've written three dozen cookbooks and been contributing editors and/or columnists at a host of magazines (back in the day). We're working on our 37th cookbook right now! But in this episode, we're making that chow fun, one of our go-to dinners.

Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:

[00:44] Our one-minute cooking tip: Start cooking thin strips of bacon (or streaky bacon) in a cold skillet (or "pan," as Bruce would say).

[02:33] We're making beef chow fun at home.

Here's the recipe: soak 10 ounces or 285 grams of wide dry rice noodles in a bowl of water overnight (or at least 12 hours--yep, that long).

Slice an 8-ounce or 225-gram beef flank steak into thin strips (angle your knife and cut thin strips sort of on the diagonal). Put these strips in a bowl and add 1 teaspoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon Shaoxing (a rice wine for cooking) or dry sherry, 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch (or cornflour). Mix well and set aside for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the sauce in a small bowl: 2 tablespoons (30 ml) standard soy sauce, 2 tablespoons (30 ml) Shaoxing (as above), 1 tablespoon (15 ml) dark soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil, and 1/2 teaspoon granulated white or caster sugar.

Drain the noodles in a colander set in the sink.

Set a wok over high heat until smoking. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons (23 ml) refined vegatable or peanut oil. Add the beef strips and any juice in the bowl. Spread out the slices all across the wok (even up the sides) to brown on one side.

Char for about 1 minute, then add 2 tablespoons (26 grams) julienned or minced fresh peeled ginger and 4 medium scallions, trimmed and cut into 2-inch (5-centimeter) segments.

Stir-fry for 1 minute, gathering all the beef strips together as you do. Spread the drained noodles over the top. Then pour the sauce all around the inner edge of the wok (so it runs down). Stir-fry gently until everything is coated (without breaking up the noodles).

Add 6 ounces (170 grams) of bean sprouts and a big pinch of ground white pepper. Serve it up!

[15:10] What’s making us happy in food this week: rhubarb pickles (look for a video on how to make these on TikTok and Istagram) and bread-and-butter pickles (for our recipe, see our YouTube channel: COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK).