Beef Stir Fry with Peppercorn

Fast and it will help if you prepare all ingredients before you even begin heating anything. Also, it doesn't mention the sides, but I served this in a bowl with a bed of white rice, and some asparagus for colour.

And, this recipe has enough salt and pepper, and so no further spicing or flavouring is required after serving.

Oh... and try to find the mixed peppercorn stuff... I used black peppercorn which gave it a bit too much bite.

Ingredients:

Lean Steak
Peanut Oil (3 tblspoon)
Orange Juice (2 tblspoon)
Shallots / chopped (1/2 cup)
Peppercorns / ground w/ mortar (2 tblspoon)
Salt (1/2 tspoon)
Chicken Stock (1 cup)
Butter (1 tblspoon)

Marinade

Soy Sauce (1 tblspoon)
Rice Vinegar (1 tblspoon)
Corn Flour (2 tblspoon)
Sesame Oil (2 tblspoon)

Cooking

1 Cut the beef in to slices that are 2" long and 5mm wide - a good sharp meat knife is really going to help. I try to keep them as sharp as possible (knives) because this will reduce any injury or f-ed up cuts. Cut against the grain of the meat (or against the striations). Put the beef in a bowl with the marinade, mix well, and leave to marinade in the fridge for 20 minutes (or longer). Pop in to the fridge and mix when you feel like it. Additionally, put the bowl on a plate in the fridge. This helps avoid contaminating the fridge with any dripping.

2 Heat a large and deep sided fry pan until it is really hot. Don't go too hot or you will F up the teflon coating. Add the oil, and when it is nearly smoking hot (peanut oil is the oil that gets the hottest before it burns), remove the beef from the marinade and add the beef to the hot pan. Only use non-metal utensils. Cook for 2 min and then remove the meat. Drain meat from oil (important), and remove the remaining oil from the pan. Set meat aside.

3 Re-heat the pan / wok over high heat. Add the orange juice. Keep it from burning by using a wooden spoon to scrap or move it around.




4 Add the shallots, peppercorn, salt and stock, and simmer over heat until the sauce has been reduced by 1/2 or more. Now stir in the butter to the reduced sauce.

5 Return the beef to the wok / pan and stir fry on high for 2 minutes or less.

Serve over rice, and add a side vegetable.





And drink plenty of water - it is good for your skin!

3.14 Hours of Fun

C'mon.
A weekend like the one that just passed deserves a night of round food-making.














You'll need a springform pan for maximum fun (although a round cake pan will work just fine too) to make this Tortilla and Black Bean Pie. This was still quite tasty the next day for lunch.















This is a variation on the same chocolate cake recipe in the form of cupcakes. The glaze was made with melted semi-sweet chocolate squares and heavy (whipping) cream.

Home Soup for Sundays

Home Soup for Sundays

1 onion (diced)
2 tsp olive oil
4 cloves of garlic (chops)
3 cups of vegetable broth
1 green pepper (diced)
1 small zucchini (chopped)
2 chopped carrot
1 chopped green onion
½ cup black beans
½ cup of frozen corn (optional)
1 tspn coriander
1 tspn cumin
½ tspn ground black peppercorns
1 cup steam cooked rice
chopped cilantro to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a medium soup pot.
2. Soften and flavour olive oil by cooking the garlic and oil on med-low heat for for 2 min.
3. Raise heat to medium and add the carrot. Cook for 4 min.
4. Increase heat to med-high and add green pepper. Cook for another 3 min.
5. Add vegetable broth and with the exception of the cilantro, add the remaining ingredients. Reduce heat and cook uncovered over medium-low for 20 minutes. Continue to stir occassionally.
6. Look under your couch and check out how much crap is under there.
7. Reduce heat to below simmer.
8. Remove from heat and stir in chopped cilantro.
9. Steamed rice can now be stirred in (optional).