Friday, June 4, 2010

Spicy beef stir-fry


My new obsession? The Cooking Channel. Granted some things are being recycled: Giada, Tyler, Food 911. But there are new people, new formats, and, most important, new ideas.

I watched a program which is a sort of tutorial on simple Chinese cooking. The young lady in charge (don’t remember her name at the moment) made stir-fries galore. What’s below is adapted from one of them. I wanted more of an all-in-one meal and accomplished it by adding vegetation and noodles. Ramen noodles were convenient ‘cause I always have some in the pantry. And … I substituted mustard greens (straight out of our garden) for cilantro

I don’t use our wok very often. A stir-fry is so quick and easy (once you’ve done your mise en place) that there isn’t any very good reason not to make them. So here we go.

Spicy beef stir-fry
Ingredients

Spicy Coating
2 tablespoons freshly ground cumin
2 tablespoons dried chile flakes
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Beef Stir-Fry
2 packages ramen noodles, cooked without flavor packet
10 oz. beef fillet (tenderloin)
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 teaspoon Shaohsing rice wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 pinch sea salt
½ medium onion, thinly sliced
1 spring onion, finely sliced (green part reserved for garnish)
½ red bell pepper, thinly sliced
handful of bean sprouts
¾ cup chopped mustard greens

After the ramen are cooked, rinse with cold water, drain, and toss with a bit of sesame oil to prevent clumping.

To make the spicy coating: Mix all the ground cumin, dried chile flakes, black pepper, and salt, on a plate.

Mix the rice wine and soy sauce together in a small bowl.

To make the beef: Prepare the fillet by hammering it with a meat mallet, or the side of a Chinese cleaver. Slice the beef into wafer-thin slices, and coat the pieces in the spice mix.

Heat a wok or pan over high heat and add the peanut oil. Add the beef and stir-fry for less than 1 minute until browned and tender. Remove the beef to a bowl and set aside.

Add a little more oil to the wok. Stir-fry bell onions and garlic for 2 minutes until softened. Add bean sprouts and bell pepper and cook, tossing constantly, for a couple of minutes. Add noodles and beef, rice wine and soy sauce, and toss to heat.

Serve immediately with the scallion greens as garnish.

3 comments:

Andrea the Kitchen Witch said...

This sound delightful! I love stir fry and totally agree once the mise en plas is done its an easy weeknight dinner. My daughter & husband will love the ramen noodles, too. Thanks for the great recipe Stephen!

PS I wish I got the cooking channel. I'm tempted to upgrade my satellite just to get it :)

Rice Palette said...

Cool recipe. From the photo, the noodles look pretty thick, much thicker than I would have thought, since you used Ramen noodles..

Unknown said...

I LOVE the Cooking Channel.. I'm with you, it's my new favorite thing! They have some really great shows on there.

The stir fry looks and sounds incredible! I don't think I've met a stir fry I didn't like!

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