Asian Inspired Beef Recipe

Another post in one day?  How can it be?!  Chalk it up to my ADD...I made a quick beef dish last night that I just remembered and decided to share.  Aren't you lucky?

Asian Inspired Beef

I'm still working on the name for this one so keep an open mind.  This one is a quick dish you can make any night of the week.  I made it using some chunks of beef I cut from a filet I had.  It uses pretty high heat though so I'd lean towards a slightly more tender cut to make sure you aren't chewing leather. 

 

Ingredients:

• 1 - 2 lbs beef, chopped into 1" cubes (anything from the short loin/sirloin area should work)
• 2 - 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/4 cup or less of sliced onion
• 1/2 tsp grated ginger, or 1/4 tsp ginger powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 - 3 tbsp Tamari or Coconut Aminos
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (if you want heat)
• sesame seeds or crushed cashew (for garnish)
• Skillet (or wok) and large spoon

Put your skillet/pan on the burner and crank that heat up to high.  Depending on your stove this could happen quickly or take a couple of minutes.  While you're waiting for the heat to come up, drop the coconut oil into the skillet. 

When the oil is melted, looks shimmery, and you start seeing small puffs of smoke it's time for the fun.  Throw your onions into the pan and start mixing them around.  Keep them moving so they don't burn but start getting a nice Maillard reaction going on (droppin some culinary knowledge on you). 60-90 seconds roughly.

Once the onions are starting to look caramelized, toss in all the beef.  This you can let sit for a few seconds before stirring to get a nice seer.  Maybe 10 - 15 seconds before you give it a stir.  After your initial one or two stirrings, time to add the Tamari or Coconut Aminos and black pepper.  Give it a good stir to coat all the meat.  After this step you can revert back to stirring every 10-15 seconds.  You should start seeing some nice dark marks on the beef.

After about 2-3 minutes of this, you can add the ginger, garlic, and cayenne and give it another couple stirs.  Always add the garlic last because it scorches easily and tastes terrible.  Cook for another 30-40 seconds.  If the meat feels like the palm of your hand when you press it, turn off the heat and move the skillet to a cool burner.  That should be a nice medium-rare to medium.  You could also cut a piece open and check.

Sprinkle your garnish over the beef and serve with some vegetables or cauliflower rice and you have dinner!  The key point to this dish is to stay with it.  The high heat is meant to mimic the stir fry method of cooking and it's easy to burn everything.  But the end result is well worth the 5-10 minutes of stress.  :-)

- Chomp Chomp