busy"Bok Choy Beef Stir-Fry"
Ingredients:
Sauce:
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon molasses
Stir-fry:
1 cup chopped bok choy stems
1 cup chopped bok choy leaves
1/2 sweet onion, sliced
1/2 orange bell pepper, chopped
3 1/2 slices thin-cut ribeye steak, cut in bite-sized strips
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 thumb of ginger, minced
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
Directions:
In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 teaspoon oyster sauce, and 1 teaspoon molasses. Stir until the cornstarch dissolves, then set aside.
Rinse bok choy. Separate the white stems from the green leaves. Chop the stems into bite-sized pieces; the leaves can be left a little larger as they'll shrink when cooked. You should have about 1 cup of each. Set aside.
Place 1/2 sweet onion flat side down and slice to make half-circles. These will break into crescents as they cook. Set aside.
Cut the orange bell pepper in half and remove the seeds. Save half for another recipe. Cut half into bite-sized pieces and set aside.
Cut the slices of ribeye steak into bite-sized strips and set aside.
Heat the wok.
Peel and mince 2 cloves of garlic. Mince 1 thumb of ginger. Put in a small bowl (make sure your wok spatula fits inside) and set aside.
Put 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil in the wok and swirl to coat. Add the minced garlic and ginger. Stir-fry briefly.
Add the onion slices. Stir-fry until they break into crescents and just start to get translucent -- they won't be anywhere near cooked yet.
Put in the bok choy stems and bell pepper. Stir-fry until they get tender.
Add the bok choy leaves and stir-fry until they start to wilt.
Put in the beef strips. Stir-fry until just browned.
Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables. It will pool in the bottom of the wok at first. Stir-fry until the sauce just starts to thicken.
Put the lid on the wok and allow it to steam for 2-3 minutes. Then take the lid off and stir-fry until the sauce is thick and glossy, coating the other ingredients.
Serve over rice, noodles, or another starch. This recipe makes about 3 servings.
Observations:
This was a little soupier than usual. Originally I hadn't planned to include the chicken stock in the sauce, but my partner Doug thought there wasn't enough sauce, so I added something to stretch it out. We were both delighted with the rich, dark flavor. That stood up well to the beef and bok choy.
Bok choy is a Chinese vegetable that's kind of like a cross between cabbage and celery. It offers many benefits. It belongs to the mustard family along with cabbage, but it has bunched stalks like celery. The stalks can be huge -- I only used one! Often the stalks and leaves are separated because the stalks take longer to cook, although baby bok choy can be cooked whole. We really liked how it came out with a tender-crisp texture. More volume would've been nice, though; next time I'll probably use twice as much. Here are more bok choy recipe ideas.
Bell peppers come in a wide range of colors. For this recipe, choose an orange or red bell pepper to contrast with the green bok choy. It makes a very pretty picture.
Thin-cut ribeye steak is ideal for stir-frying. Just cut it into bite-sized strips.
Overall, we like this recipe a lot. We didn't have rice available, so I wrapped mine in a tortilla, which actually worked pretty well aside from getting sauce on my hands.