Stir-fried Beef with Hot Peppers

I had a few friends over for dinner several weeks back and cooked a hodgepodge of Asian dishes. I don’t have a whole lot of experience cooking dinners for more than a couple people and figured it’d be a great opportunity to work on how to get everything on the table while still hot. Unfortunately, that meant that I was busy in the kitchen while everyone arrived but in the end it was well worth the effort.

One thing I’ve picked up is that prepping all of the vegetables, sauces, and marinating the meat ahead of time really helps. This way, you’re never wasting any time chopping garlic when you could be paying attention to the three or four dishes going on the stove! Not to mention, it makes it easier on cleanup too, as the mixing bowls and knives can be cleaned and put away well beforehand as well. And as is with stir-fry, dishes are cooked very quickly so you don’t want to be bogged down with other tasks.

I ended up serving three Cantonese dishes, a Korean dish, and Thai dish. Four things I’ve posted before (Pad See Ew, steamed striped bass, yo-choy, and a seafood stir-fry) and the dish I’m posting about today. I’ve had similar dishes in the past but never tried making it myself. So I figured, what the heck, it’d be a nice dish to try out. This recipe is from Practical Korean Cooking, one of the de facto books on Korean recipes.

A word of caution though. I wasn’t paying attention to how long I had the hot peppers for but they had enough time to get spicier than I remember. One of my buddies was determined to best the spice and I guess he did, but he looked like he was in pain with every bite =P

Stir-fried Beef with Hot Peppers

Time: 25-30 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
– 3/4 – 1 lb beef tenderloin/flank/eye of round, matchstick sliced
– 1 tbsp ShaoHsing rice wine
– 2 tsp Soy sauce
– 1 tsp Sugar
– 1 tbsp Corn Starch
– 3-5 Long Hot Green Peppers
– 3-5 Long Hot Red Peppers
– 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp sugar

Method:
1. Combine meat, rice wine, soy sauce, sugar, and corn starch in a bowl and let marinate for 10 minutes.
2. Julienne the peppers and discard the seeds. They can be soaked in warm water to remove some of the spiciness.
3. In a frying pan or wok, add the peppers and remaining salt and sugar, stir frying for about 1-2 minutes. Remove and set aside.
4. Still over high heat, add a little canola oil and garlic, then after about 30 seconds add the beef. Stir-fry the beef until just barely cooked and then add the peppers back in.
5. Stir fry another minute or so and then serve with rice.