Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with Mr Bing Luo’s fragrant Chinese beef dish.

If you’re anything like us, you will need little invitation to eat Chinese food. But if you did need an excuse to go east with your eating, Hutong, one of the most respected Chinese restaurants in London, is offering a rather tempting one. In order to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival – a harvest celebration that falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar – they have created a special seven-dish menu to show off everything that is great about diverse northern Chinese cooking (something the restaurant specialises in). And to cater for anyone who does not live in the capital – or those with a spot of vertigo who can’t face the trip to the 33rd floor of the Shard where the restaurant is based – we asked head chef Mr Bing Luo for the recipe for one of his favourite dishes. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp vegetable oil 200g beef tenderloin, cut into strips 20g fresh red and green bird’s eye chilli, thinly sliced at an angle 5g chilli bean sauce ½ tsp salt ½ tsp white pepper 5g ginger, thinly sliced 5g spring onion, chopped 5g garlic, thinly sliced ½ tsp potato starch or corn starch 35ml cold water

Method: Heat a non-stick pan with the vegetable oil, then pan fry the beef tenderloin for 5 minutes.

Add all the remaining ingredients (except the starch and water), and keep stirring for 5 minutes on a high heat, so they don’t burn.

In a separate bowl, stir the starch and water until mixed.

Add the starch mixture into the pan, and stir for 2 minutes until the sauce thickens. Serve with steamed rice or thinly sliced aubergine, steamed for 2-3 minutes.