Beef Stir-fry
Being a girl who loves cooking with others, I’ve often dragged my boyfriend into the process of whatever new thing I’m making. Now he actually asks me to cook things with him when he sees me! It’s really rewarding when you transfer a hobby you love to another person.
Anyway, enough with the mushy reminiscing. Time to get good and meaty.
Ingredients for a successful marinade.
Mmmm… beef. (In marinade)
The trick to a good stir fry is ingredient prep and order of cooking. While those Teriyaki cooks make it look easy, it took months for my dad to perfect his method for stir fry (He was the main chef for this dish).
We also chopped up bok choy and mushrooms, but the photos I took were bad because we were in a hurry to eat.
My dad stirring that stir fry so fast that his spoon is a blur. (Or it could just be my camera but I’ll never tell.)
Separating the noodles before flash boiling. Note that these noodles are fresh and not dried, which is why they did not need a long time to boil.
One can substitute any kind of stir-fry appropriate vegetable or meat, but the really tricky part is the-
-Method:
- Chop up any vegetables you are using. Remember that vegetables shrink when cooked, so be generous with your sizes.
- Take out your meat. If it is already cut into the appropriate stir fry size, place it in a bowl with the marinade of your choice (the ingredients to the marinade used here is after the method section).
- Use a wok/large skillet on high heat cook your vegetables first, using sesame oil for an Asian flavour. My general rule of thumb is to cook onions first, then add the vegetables according to how hard they are (broccoli stems take longer to cook than mushrooms, etc.) If you are using bok choy, bean sprouts, or another leafy green, do not add it at this point.
- Put on a pot of water to boil if you are using noodles.
- Remove the vegetables and set aside. Brown the meat in the same pan.
- While you are waiting for the meat to brown, place desired amount of noodles in boiling water for a brief period of time. (Fresh noodles only need to be cooked for under a minute.) Drain.
- Now add your vegetables to the meaty pan. This includes any bok choy or bean sprouts. This is also the time to add your sauce (our family likes to use bottled teriyaki sauce).
- Add the noodles and toss like crazy. Now, lower the heat and put a lid on your pan. This will allow the noodles some time to soak up the sauce. You only need to do this for a couple of minutes.
- Enjoy!
Ingredients used here:
Marinade:
- Apple juice
- Soy sauce
- Minced garlic
Vegetables (In no particular order):
- Beansprouts
- Broccoli
- Mushrooms
- Orange pepper
- Mini Bok Choy
- Onion
