Farmers Market Stir-Fry #1
Ingredients
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1⁄4 cup cold water
1⁄4 cup plum sauce
2 inches fresh ginger, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1⁄4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 flank steak (2-3lb)
oil for stir frying (I used Safflower since it is the only non-olive oil I had on hand)
handful of baby carrots (enough to cover the bottom of the wok)
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 bunch green onions, sliced
3 small baby bok choi, sliced
Instructions
1. In a small bowl, whisk cornstarch and cold water until smooth. Stir in the plum sauce, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and pepper flakes; set aside. Or put all of the sauce ingredients into an appropriate container and blend them with your handheld blender. I opt for this method if I don’t want to take the time to chop the garlic and ginger.
2. Cut flank steak in half lengthwise and then cut into thin strips against the grain. Heat your wok (or large skillet) over high heat then add 1-2T of oil. Stir-fry beef in oil until no longer pink; remove and keep warm.
3. In the same pan, adding more oil if necessary, stir-fry the carrots for a minute or two. Then add mushrooms and green onions for another minute or two. Add bok choi last and stir until it wilts slightly. Return beef to the pan. Whisk the plum sauce mixture; stir into skillet. Cook and stir until slightly thickened.
4. Serve over rice.
Comments
I get the feeling we’ll be eating a lot of stir-fry this summer due to the CSA and Farmer’s Market. The method for stir-frying is pretty much always the same. Stir-fry meat and remove. Stir-fry veggies in order from longest cooking time to shortest. Add meat back to wok and add sauce to coat. The length you cook the veggies will depend on how crisp you want them to be.
This sauce is pretty spicy due to the ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes, it compliments the flank steak very well. While you could use any beef you wanted to, I’ve been finding that flank steak really works well for stir-frys, so that’s what I tend to keep around in the freezer.
And, yes, that picture is on a small plate since I forgot to take a picture until after we’d already finished eating and didn’t want to dirty a big plate just to take a picture.
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