FOODIE WEEKEND - Stir-fry Black Pepper Beef

Deciding on what to eat in our household could sometimes be a problem.  I like light simple meal , kind of anything goes, while Captain has his days.. Sometimes he’s very choosy, and sometimes very simple.  Normally at night we stick to protein and salad like a piece of steak, chicken, fish or even lamb once in a while.  The boys are easier,  a dish of pasta or burger or burrito and they are set.  

So, yesterday was one of the fussy days.

 

“Amore, what’s for dinner?”  he asked.

“How about grilled salmon?” I suggested

“Umph” It was a no go.

“We have some steak we bought the other day, I can thaw that”   trying again.

“Naahh, I’m not in the mood to look at a piece of meat on my plate.., can you make a stew or something instead with the steak?”

“Babe, stew with the steak? We’ll end up eating beef paste instead!  What about some Chinese style stir-fry instead?  You can have it with rice” 

After a long pause, Chinese stir-fry it was.   Since I haven’t posted anything on food in a while, allow me to share this simple dish I used to cook a lot during my bachelor days many, many years ago.   The dish is really simple to make and takes just a few minutes!

Stir-fry black pepper beef with carrots and french beans

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

3 pieces of steak (I used the lean cut) sliced thinly.

Vegetable (Well, ideally capsicum and carrot would be the best but since I did not have capsicum in the fridge I used whatever was available i.e. carrots and french beans)

Dark soy sauce (sweet or not up to you, but if you use sweet, do not use sugar in the cooking)

Thick oyster sauce

Ground black pepper (amount depending on your taste.  We love black pepper so, I used about 2 teaspoon)

½ an onion sliced quite thickly

½ an onion, 3 cloves of garlic dry blend or pound

1 teaspoon of ground ginger

Sugar, salt

Spring onion for garnishing (optional)

Method

Heat the wok and pour in a table spoon of vegetable oil (sunflower or corn but not olive oil)

Once hot, put in the pounded onion, garlic and ginger.  Stir-fry until fragranced.

                  Add in the sliced beef and stir making sure the beef are coated well.                             
Cook for 1 - 2 minutes

Throw in the vegetable and stir again for about 1 minute.

Add in the soya sauce, oyster sauce and black pepper.  At this stage, if the mixture is a bit dry, you can add a little bit of water.  Your dish will end up with a bit of gravy too!

Add in sugar and salt and cook until the beef is tender.

     Finally add in the sliced onion and cook for another minute before turning off the fire. 

If your dish is a little watery, mix a teaspoon of cornstarch with a bit of water.  Mix well until the mixture is smooth and add it to the dish before turning off the fire.  This will thicken the dish and you’ll get a more saucy gravy rather than runny.

Garnish, serve with plain steamed rice and enjoy!

Captain was happy with his meal and he had the leftover again before going for his flight the next day.  Big success!   Happy trying!