Skip to main content

Beef and Baby Bok Choy Stir-fry

You can use any hearty vegetable for this. It cooks pretty quickly, so start some rice first. I was going to take some cool pictures with one of the fancy cameras around here, but I couldn't figure out how to work the dang thing :P so you'll have to use your imagination. Basically it looked like this picture that I ganked from Epicurious, but with lots of tasty beef:

You will need:

1-1.5 lbs beef: tri-tip, blade steak, or flank steak work best
A lot of hearty greens, such as bok choy or broccoli
3-5 shallots or 1 red onion
2 cloves garlic
fish sauce
ground coriander
white pepper
brown sugar
soy sauce
rice vinegar
sesame oil
red pepper flakes
chicken broth or water

Slice the beef into thin, bite-sized strips and coat with with 1 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tsp brown sugar, 1/2 tsp white pepper, and 1/2 tsp ground coriander. Allow to sit for at least 15 minutes.

If you're using bok choy, slice the larger specimens into quarters and the smaller ones in half, lengthwise. Clean as thoroughly as possible, to get any grit out from between the leaves.

Peel the shallots and chop each one only once or twice, so it's in nice big pieces. Mince the garlic finely. In a small dish, combine soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, and brown sugar into a sauce that tastes good to you. You will only need about 1/4 c. sauce.

Heat a large, flat-bottomed pan until it juuuuust starts to smoke. Add the meat in 2-3 batches so that it isn't crowded in the pan. Your goal is to cook the meat on both sides on very high heat so that the edges are crisp and brown (1-2 minutes per side). Set the cooked meat aside in a bowl. If the bottom of the pan has a lot of crusty stuff, deglaze it with some broth or water and pour this into the bowl.

Heat up more oil until very hot and add some red pepper flakes. 10 seconds later, add the shallots and garlic and stir until the shallots are softened a bit and the edges are brown. Add half of the bok choy and stir fry 2 minutes. Add the second half of the bok choy, the meat and any drippings from the bowl, and your sauce. Stir well and either leave the pan open to evaporate the liquid while the veggies steam, or put the lid on--it depends on how much liquid you have and how wet you want it. Allow to steam until the veggies are a nice done-ness. The two-stage veggie approach gives you a variety of textures. Serve over fresh rice.

Comments

Lillian said…
When I say clean thoroughly, I mean it! Some of my greens had grit in them which makes me shudder just thinking about it. Beware! Also, Dan said, "What were those greens we just ate?"
I replied, "Baby bok choy."
"Hmmm..." he said, "apparently bok choy is my least favorite vegetable."

Honestly, I think if I slice it smaller and put it in other things, he'll never notice ;)

Popular posts from this blog

Thick-cut Pork Chops

These intimidating chops were actually pretty easy to cook. They're called an "Iowa Chop", and they're just a thick-cut, bone-in, center-cut chop. I've discovered that the secret to juicy pork chops is to start with a cold pan and obsessively checking the temperature . I find they're best just under 160 degrees. Pork Chops 2 1-lb. Iowa Chops 2-3 Tbsp. salt 2 Tbsp. white pepper 2 Tbsp. dried sage 2 Tbsp. Smoked (or regular) paprika 3 Tbsp. oil Sauce (optional): 1/2 c. chicken broth 1/2 c. white wine (I used Pinot Grigio) 2 Tbsp. corn starch 1 tsp. white pepper 2 tsp. Dijon mustard 1/4 c. cold water Preheat the oven to 350. Pat the chops dry with some paper towel. Sprinkle them liberally with the salt and spices and allow them to warm up to room temperature while you start the quinoa and chop the cauliflower. Place the oil in your pan, but do not pre-heat the pan. Add the chops to the pan and place them on the stove. Heat the pan up to medium, turning the chop

Miele Steam Oven Pulled Pork

I've been debating whether I should post some of these more niche recipes--now that we have a steam oven and a high powered stove, I am making recipes that not everyone can reproduce with other equipment. I've decided to post some of them 1) for my own records, and 2) because there are very few recipes available online for these devices (especially the steam oven). Perhaps these recipes will be of use to others. I don't have a photo for this one because I decided to post the recipe after the fact. 3-5 lb pork shoulder roast (~3 lb without bone, ~5 lb with) 1 large white onion, 1/4" slices 1 Tbsp. butter 1 chicken boullion cube 1 c. water 2 tsp. dried thyme 1 tsp. dried sage 1 tsp. whole coriander 1 Tbsp. coarse ground salt 1 Tbsp. brown sugar 1 tsp. dry mustard 1 tsp. white pepper 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. cayenne 1/4 tsp. allspice 1/4 tsp. celery seed Saute the onions in the butter in a saute pan over medium for 10 min until the onions are somewha

Quick Turkey Meatballs

For various reasons, Melanie likes ground turkey more than ground beef, and so I've been making turkey meatballs a lot. Obviously the problem with turkey is that it can be really dry since it's so lean, but one day we made a random hippy turkey burger recipe and it taught us the he secret to making ground turkey not be gross: ground mushrooms!  If you grind up the mushrooms and mix them in, they kind of cook away but keep whatever you're cooking moist and give that umami flavor that's also missing from turkey. People who don't like mushrooms won't notice their presence at all unless they're specifically looking for them. This recipe is also designed to cook up really really quickly - you can have these done in the time it takes you to boil the water for the noodles. The spices are loosely based on Lillian's meatball recipe but only use dry spices for convenience. They still come out a little dry, but especially with a wetter sauce (marinara, vodka, etc.