Thursday, January 10, 2008

Stir-Fry

I made stir fry using some london broil the other night. I've been trying different things for stir fry ever since I read this series of posts at Tigers and Strawberries on how to stir fry. My stir fry skills still need a bit of work, one of my main problems being that I just can't seem to stand there and stir. It's more, stir-stir-stir, wipe the counter, stir some more, put something away, stir, etc. However, tonight's meal still turned out decent.

I sliced the london broil into thin strips (2"x1/4"x1/2") and marinated them in ziplock with 3TB shaoxing wine, 1TB soy sauce, 1TB ground bean sauce, and 1TB cornstarch. The cornstarch really helps the marinade cling to the meat and will help thicken the sauce at the end of cooking. I let it marinade maybe 45 min?

When I originally planned on making the stir fry I had broccoli and other typical stir fry veggies on hand. Those had already been eaten, so I was left with carrots and celery which are not typically stir fry options. I also had onions and sweet red peppers which I used.

I didn't want a spicy meal. Ginger doesn't go with celery in my mind, so the only aromatics I used was a bunch of sliced garlic and a spoonful of chinese fermented black beans with chili from a jar (which really isn't very spicy).

The Process: Heated the wok, added some peanut oil. When the oil was almost smoking I added the fermented black beans, stirred a bit and then layed the beef out over the bottom of the pan. Let it cook for a bit and then sprinkled the garlic slices over the top. Once the meat had browned I added the onion slices and stir fried for a bit, then added the carrots and celery. Stir fried a bit more, added the remaining marinated, cooked it a bit. Used some chicken broth to deglaze the pan into a thick sauce. Cooked until the carrots were tender, adding broth as needed. Stir in the red pepper strips, seasoned with some black pepper and a bit of toasted sesame seed oil. Once the red peppers were heated (1 min), it was time to serve.

This is when I found out that my rice cooker officially died. It had been on the fritz, sometimes not turning off or keeping time correctly. However this time when it dinged done I opened it up to find my brown jasmine rice uncooked in a pool of lukewarm water. A new rice cooker is needed. I'm considering this Zojirushi, since I'm not convinced I need a $150 model that doesn't work as a steamer.

We ate the stirfry on it's own, since I was also out of couscous and didn't want to wait for rice to cook on the stove. Glad I decided against spice. Still was tasty, though.

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