Beef strips with pineapple and mushrooms

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 1 large pineapple, approx. 1.2 kg or more
• 300 g beef fillet(s)
• 2 tbsp sesame oil, dark
• 4 tbsp, heaped tapioca flour
• 200 g beech mushrooms (Shimeji), brown
• 60 g pineapple pulp, see preparation
• 6 small onions, red
• 4 medium-sized garlic cloves
• 2 small chili peppers, green
• 1 stalk of Kailan (Chinese broccoli)
• 2 tbsp celery leaves
• 1 Pepper, red, long, mild
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 tbsp tapioca flour
• 2 tbsp rice wine
• 1 tsp chicken broth powder
• 80 ml pineapple juice, see preparation
• 1 tbsp Soy sauce (Kecap Tim Ikan), see appendix
• 2 tbsp coconut milk, creamy, 24% fat
• 2 tbsp tomato juice
• 1 tsp Szechuan pepper, freshly ground
• ½ tsp five-spice powder
• 1 ½ liters of frying oil, preferably refined peanut oil

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 5 minutes

sweet and sour side dish from Szechuan cuisine

Brush the pineapple thoroughly under running water. Trim the leaves and cut 1/3 of the pineapple lengthwise. Make a slight cut on the opposite side so that the pineapple sits firmly in place. Hollow out the pineapple with a sharp spoon, ensuring that there is at least a 1 cm edge all around. Press all but 60 g of flesh into a juicer. Use the juice for the sauce. Cut the beef fillet into thin slices across the grain. Chop larger pieces into bite-sized pieces. Mix with the sesame oil and set aside. Clean the mushrooms and generously remove the growing medium containing the mushroom mycelium at the bottom. Cut off the mushroom stems close to the cap and chop crosswise, leaving the caps. Chop the pineapple pieces into bite-sized pieces. Trim both ends of the onions and garlic cloves, peel them, and roughly chop them. Wash the small green chilies and cut them crosswise into thin slices. Leave the seeds and discard the stems. Wash the fresh kailan and separate the leaves from the stem. Separate the woody stem below the second leaf and discard. Separate the thin leaf stalks from the leaves along the midrib, halving the leaves lengthwise. Cut the leaf stalks and stem crosswise into thin rolls. Roughly chop the leaves. Keep the leaves and stem rolls separate. Freeze any unused celery. Measure and thaw the frozen celery. Wash the fresh celery leaves, remove the stalks and any unclean leaves. Roughly chop the leaves and set aside. Weigh the frozen celery and thaw. Wash the peppers, remove the stalks, slice lengthwise, open, deseed, cut crosswise into thin strips, and then cut these crosswise into small cubes. For the sauce, dissolve the tapioca flour in the rice wine, add the remaining ingredients, and mix until smooth. Heat the frying oil in a wok or deep fryer to 180°C. Coat the meat pieces in plenty of tapioca flour and drop them into the frying oil in batches. Use a slotted spoon to keep the pieces separate. Fry until light brown. Drain on kitchen paper and set aside. Remove the frying oil from the wok, add the sunflower oil, and heat. Add the onion and garlic pieces and stir-fry until the onions are translucent. Add the pineapple pieces and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the chilies, kailan stems, mushrooms, and diced peppers and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Deglaze with the sauce. Mix in the leaves (from the kailan and celery) and the meat, and season with salt and pepper. Stuff the pineapple and serve warm with white rice. Appendix: Kecap Tim Ikan: https://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/3483691519091669/Milde-dunkle-malzig-wuerzige-Sojasauce-Kecap-Tim-Ikan.html