Recipe: "Beef and Alliums Stir-fry"
Apr. 12th, 2022 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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creative_cooksMy garlic chives are growing like mad, so I wanted to try them in a stir-fry. This worked out quite well. \o/
"Beef and Alliums Stir-fry"
Ingredients:
Sauce:
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Stir-fry:
1 bunch of garlic chives, snipped
1/2 sweet onion, sliced
3-4 slices thin-cut beef steak, cut into bite-sized strips
1 can water chestnuts, drained
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
Directions:
In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon mirin, 1 teaspoon rice vinegar, and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Stir until the cornstarch dissolves. Set aside.
Pick 1 bunch of garlic chives and snip into 1-2 inch pieces. You should have about a cup of pieces. Set aside.
Take half a sweet onion and slice it. The slices will separate into crescents as they cook. Set aside.
Separate 4 slices of thin-cut beef. Cut into bite-sized strips. Set aside.
Open 1 can of water chestnuts and drain them. Set aside.
Peel and mince 2 garlic cloves and set aside.
Heat the wok. Add 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil and the minced garlic. Stir-fry briefly.
Add the onion and stir-fry for several minutes until tender.
Put in the meat bits and stir-fry until just browned.
Add the garlic chives and water chestnuts and stir-fry briefly. Watch for the garlic chives to darken and wilt.
Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables. It will pool in the bottom of the wok. Stir-fry until the sauce turns glossy and thickens to coat the food.
Serve the beef and vegetables over rice or another starch.
Notes:
This sauce blend has a bright yet complex flavor, and thickens up beautifully in just a minute or two. It should work well in many stir-fry recipes.
Cornstarch is a thickener that makes the sauce cling to the other ingredients. You can also use tapioca starch.
Soy sauce is a savory, salty condiment that adds lots of flavor to a stir-fry ... if you don't overdo it. Use 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon at a time, like you would Worcestershire sauce; recipes that use it by the quarter or half-cup wind up tasting only like soy sauce. There are lower-salt version available if sodium is a concern. Since you don't need to use table salt in a recipe with soy sauce, though, its intense flavor can actually reduce the amount of salt required to make a dish taste good.
Mirin is a syrupy rice wine used in cooking. It adds sweet and savory notes, and gives body to the sauce.
Rice vinegar is bright and sour with a slight sweet note. If you don't have any, you can use white vinegar with a pinch of sugar.
Sesame oil has a wonderful dark, roasty smell and lends a nutty taste to the sauce. Always cook it for a couple minutes, though, because as a top dressing it tends to taste burnt.
Garlic chives have long, flat, hollow leaves with a strong pungent flavor. They are high in vitamin C and carotene. If you can't find them, substitute a bunch of regular chives (which have round leaves) or several green onions.
Sweet onions are less pungent than hot onions. They work well as a vegetable in stir-fries.
Garlic has a pungent flavor that mellows significantly when cooked as an aromatic. Here it adds depth to an otherwise sweet recipe.
This recipe uses three different alliums: garlic chives, sweet onion, and garlic. If you're especially fond of one allium, you can increase the amount of it to strengthen that particular flavor.
I used thin-cut beef steak. This isn't the paper-thin strips meant for stir fry, but rather palm-sized rounds about 1/4" thick. When sliced into strips, it makes fantastic stir-fry meat.
Water chestnuts are aquatic vegetables with a tender yet crispy texture. I was very pleased with the canned ones we used, which aren't overly crunchy like restaurant ones sometimes are. So that was a hit.
Overall, this recipe turned out great, with a bright, rich flavor. The alliums go really well with the robust flavor of the beef. You could also use other spring vegetables such as asparagus. This recipe makes about 3 servings.
"Beef and Alliums Stir-fry"
Ingredients:
Sauce:
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Stir-fry:
1 bunch of garlic chives, snipped
1/2 sweet onion, sliced
3-4 slices thin-cut beef steak, cut into bite-sized strips
1 can water chestnuts, drained
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
Directions:
In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon mirin, 1 teaspoon rice vinegar, and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Stir until the cornstarch dissolves. Set aside.
Pick 1 bunch of garlic chives and snip into 1-2 inch pieces. You should have about a cup of pieces. Set aside.
Take half a sweet onion and slice it. The slices will separate into crescents as they cook. Set aside.
Separate 4 slices of thin-cut beef. Cut into bite-sized strips. Set aside.
Open 1 can of water chestnuts and drain them. Set aside.
Peel and mince 2 garlic cloves and set aside.
Heat the wok. Add 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil and the minced garlic. Stir-fry briefly.
Add the onion and stir-fry for several minutes until tender.
Put in the meat bits and stir-fry until just browned.
Add the garlic chives and water chestnuts and stir-fry briefly. Watch for the garlic chives to darken and wilt.
Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables. It will pool in the bottom of the wok. Stir-fry until the sauce turns glossy and thickens to coat the food.
Serve the beef and vegetables over rice or another starch.
Notes:
This sauce blend has a bright yet complex flavor, and thickens up beautifully in just a minute or two. It should work well in many stir-fry recipes.
Cornstarch is a thickener that makes the sauce cling to the other ingredients. You can also use tapioca starch.
Soy sauce is a savory, salty condiment that adds lots of flavor to a stir-fry ... if you don't overdo it. Use 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon at a time, like you would Worcestershire sauce; recipes that use it by the quarter or half-cup wind up tasting only like soy sauce. There are lower-salt version available if sodium is a concern. Since you don't need to use table salt in a recipe with soy sauce, though, its intense flavor can actually reduce the amount of salt required to make a dish taste good.
Mirin is a syrupy rice wine used in cooking. It adds sweet and savory notes, and gives body to the sauce.
Rice vinegar is bright and sour with a slight sweet note. If you don't have any, you can use white vinegar with a pinch of sugar.
Sesame oil has a wonderful dark, roasty smell and lends a nutty taste to the sauce. Always cook it for a couple minutes, though, because as a top dressing it tends to taste burnt.
Garlic chives have long, flat, hollow leaves with a strong pungent flavor. They are high in vitamin C and carotene. If you can't find them, substitute a bunch of regular chives (which have round leaves) or several green onions.
Sweet onions are less pungent than hot onions. They work well as a vegetable in stir-fries.
Garlic has a pungent flavor that mellows significantly when cooked as an aromatic. Here it adds depth to an otherwise sweet recipe.
This recipe uses three different alliums: garlic chives, sweet onion, and garlic. If you're especially fond of one allium, you can increase the amount of it to strengthen that particular flavor.
I used thin-cut beef steak. This isn't the paper-thin strips meant for stir fry, but rather palm-sized rounds about 1/4" thick. When sliced into strips, it makes fantastic stir-fry meat.
Water chestnuts are aquatic vegetables with a tender yet crispy texture. I was very pleased with the canned ones we used, which aren't overly crunchy like restaurant ones sometimes are. So that was a hit.
Overall, this recipe turned out great, with a bright, rich flavor. The alliums go really well with the robust flavor of the beef. You could also use other spring vegetables such as asparagus. This recipe makes about 3 servings.
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Date: 2022-04-14 12:04 am (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2022-04-14 02:51 am (UTC)We got a wok last year, so if you scroll back through the Recipe tag on my blog, you'll see other stir-fry recipes. I discovered that while I like wokking, it's hard to find good stir-fry recipes in cookbooks, so I wound up experimenting a lot on my own. I did, however, greatly appreciate the introduction to new ingredients that some of the cookbooks recommended. <3 sesame oil.