Sizzlin' Stir-Fry

A March Saturday night and its cold, dark, and windy out. At this point, I am definitely not wanting to go outside and grill steak tips like I had originally planned. So now I have two pounds of defrosted sirloin tips sitting in front of me, and rather than venture out into Antarctica, I decide to take my cooking endeavors to the indoors. We have a lot of fresh vegetables, so the first thing that comes to my mind is a stir-fry. I looked to see what I could use as the sauce, and decided to make it up as I went along. Stir-fry's are a great option when you have a lot of food, and aren't sure what to do with it. Thus, the dish pictured above happened. Try it out, and feel free to add your own changes, depending on which type of vegetable or meat you have available to you. 

First, I sliced the meat into uniform pieces. A large julienne, almost, and cooked it on medium heat, seasoned with sea salt and pepper. Wait until all the pieces of meat are browned, and appear to be cooked, but dont wait too long since the meat will finish its cooking in the sauce after it has rested. 

After the meat has browned, drain it and set it aside to let it rest. 

In the same large saucepan that you cooked the meat in, add some beef broth, Worcestershire Sauce, soy sauce, and browning sauce. 

Whisk the ingredients together and simmer. I used about 2 and a half cups of beef broth, about a quarter of a cup of Worcestershire Sauce, 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, and about 2 tablespoons of browning sauce. I didn't measure these out since I was making the dish up as I went, so this is just a rough estimate. Feel free to add or take away a little depending on how you'd like it.

This is sort of between a light boil and a simmer. Bring the liquid up to this stage and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. 

Add the beef back in and let it cook together for about 5 minutes. This will be just enough time to let the meat marinate, but still keep some of its natural flavors. Since the sauce will be served with the dish, you don't want to over marinate the meat to the point where it tastes like a textured version of the sauce.

Next, add in whatever vegetables you'd like. I chose broccoli, and a medley of corn, green beans, carrots, and peas. If you'd like, you can add frozen vegetables as well right now. Keep in mind, however, that they will take less time to cook since they are already semi-cooked and then flash frozen before being packaged. 

Serve over a bed of rice, garnish with sesame seeds, and you're good to go. 

*Note: Just be sure that if you are going to substitute chicken for the beef, you use a chicken stock in substitution for the beef stock.

Until next time,

K

NONCOOKS LIFELINE:

Julienne- a type of cut, usually used on a vegetable, where it is cut into thin strips. However, on the meat, we did a more thick one. 

Simmer- see previous post on homemade pizza rolls.

Marinate- to literally soak a piece of meat in a sauce to infuse it with flavor, usually before cooking, but we did it during cooking in this recipe. 

Garnish- to garnish is to top a dish with another type of food, usually an herb, to embellish it.