You may also have heard of this as Garlic Beef, because it’s got a whole bunch of garlic in it, but honestly I found the Hoisin sauce flavour to be more prominent.

Other than that? I don’t have an attribution for this one, it’s just something I have a recipe for, so who knows where it’s from originally and how many mutations it went through before I made it (mmmm… mutations). Maybe that’s why it’s called “Garlic Beef” rather than “Hoisin Beef” – maybe it used to be more garlicky and less Hoisin-y. Or, I don’t know, maybe the Hoisin sauce I used is just particularly insistent.

Hoisin Beef and Green Beans

Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil if you’re making it in a wok like I was – otherwise I suppose any oil is fine
1 lb beef, sliced into long thin strips
1 shallot, diced
1/2 lb green beans, just trimmed, you don’t need to cut them up
2 tbsp water
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup Hoisin sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp hot sauce
2 tbsp water

Method
Heat the first tbsp of oil in a wok or whatever you like to stir-fry in. I used my electric wok, so what I’m saying pertains to woks.
Put your strips of beef in and stir-fry for about 3 – 5 minutes, then remove them to drain on paper towels.
If there’s more than a tablespoon of liquid (oil/meat juices) still in there, drain out the rest.
Throw in the shallot and stir-fry until softened, 2 – 3 minutes as I recall. In a regular pan it might be more like 5 minutes.
Add in the green beans and a bit of water, so they’ll steam, and stir-fry another 4 or 5 minutes.
In a separate small pan, heat the other 1/2 tablespoon of oil over medium heat.
Add the garlic and saute for about 3 minutes.
Then, stir in the Hoisin sauce, hot sauce, sugar, and soy sauce.
Cook for about 3 – 5 minutes or until slightly thickened.
Throw the sauce into the wok with the green beans and onions, and let it cook another 3 minutes, during which time it will thicken further.
Put the beef back in to heat through.
Serve over rice.

P.S., I’ve had this post 100% written for weeks, but I just kept not getting the time to upload the picture (which was even all resized and everything!).