Quick Beef Stir Fry

My love of stir -fry began really early on. I knew that I loved the way the vegetables were cut, how colorful they were all sautéing together in a large frying pan. I knew that I couldn’t get enough of the slightly sweet sauce soaked into fluffy white rice. But what I didn’t know was that it was my mother’s busy weeknight secret weapon. After a long day of work, school, and dance classes, I’d stand in the kitchen and marvel at how quickly my mom made this miraculous meal come together. No doubt she was dead tired, but she made it look effortless. I literally remember thinking to myself, “I’ll definitely make this all the time once I’m a grown up.” Fast forward twenty or so years and I’ve kept my childhood promise to myself. I make quick stir-fries all the time.

There’s such beauty and finesse in making something so fulfilling in such a short time. The finished product is so casually impressive (if that even makes any sense), and it’s perfect for anyone who’s busy, tired, or pressed for time. It’s done quickly, it’s super filling, and there’s only one pot to wash. And it’s so adaptable! Chicken, steak, sans meat, whatever, no biggie. There’s no limit to the combination of vegetables you can use- or not use. If you absolutely hate peppers, just substitute them for whatever fresh or frozen veggie you have hanging around. Stir-fry is one of the simplest staple meals to conquer. Get into it.

What You’ll Need:

Vegetable or canola oil
A tablespoon of minced garlic
One medium to large onion
A medium to large green pepper
Two large, skinned carrots
A regular sized package of button mushrooms
Fresh ginger root
About a pound of finely cut steak (leaner cuts are best for this recipe)
Dash of red pepper flakes (optional)
Chopped green onion for garnish

For the Sauce:
1/2 cup of soy sauce (I use the low sodium version)
1/8 cup of rice wine vinegar (regular white can work in a pinch)
1 ½ tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
½ teaspoon of ground ginger or a teaspoon of fresh
A splash of fish sauce (optional)
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
 

What To Do:

Take a minute to prepare your ingredients. Rinse fresh produce, and pull any frozen produce out the freezer to have nearby. Peel and slice the carrots and onion, peel and mince the fresh ginger, chop your mushrooms, slice your green pepper. Whisk together your soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, honey, additional garlic and ginger, optional fish sauce, and cornstarch in a small mixing bowl. Set aside for later.

Heat about three tablespoons of oil in your sauté pan or wok on medium high heat. It may seem like a lot of oil for a stir-fry, but there’s a lot of vegetables to get through. Add your minced garlic and ginger, and let them heat up a bit, for about a minute at most, pushing them around in the pan. Make sure to not let them burn, they’re the basic flavor profile of your entire dish.

Season your steak lightly with salt and pepper, and to the pan. For my thin cut, I let it brown for about two minutes on each side, so that it’s still slightly pink in the middle. It’ll get more time in the pan later. Remove from the pan and sit aside to rest.

Now time for the vegetables. Add the carrots to the pan first, as they take the longest to cook. Give them about two minutes in there alone, then add the green peppers. After about a minute, add the onions. A minute later, the frozen edamame, and another minute later, the chopped mushrooms.

Slice your steak in about a two-inch width. Throw it in the pan with the veggies, which should be just about finished cooking. We’re almost done! Pour the sauce over your veggies and give everything a good stir to make sure everything gets coated. Give it about two minutes in the pan, and you’re done! Serve over fluffy white rice.

Tips:

Before anything goes onto the heat, have your ingredients pre-washed and cut. For a perfect stir-fry where none of the vegetables are overcooked and the meat stays tender, you’ll need everything prepared and ready to toss in as you go along.

A wok is ideal for making a stir-fry, but if you don’t have one, don’t worry! My mother never had a wok, and neither do I. Just make sure you use a somewhat shallow sauté or frying pan that’s wide enough to fit your ingredients- because everything will be cooked in that one pan.

Remember that stir-fries are the most subjective and adaptable meals on the planet. Fresh ginger is great, but if you only have ground, it’ll still turn out great. Adjust your ingredients to fit your family’s needs- I left out spice to accommodate for a toddler, but feel free to dial up the heat with red pepper flakes if you can handle it!

Pasta Sauce 101

I first started cooking in undergrad, with a self-mandated, weekly grocery budget of forty dollars. Yup. Forty whole dollars. And like any other college student, my staple meal was what else? Spaghetti. Spaghetti made with jars upon jars of processed pasta sauce. Looking back on my years of spaghetti consumption, I realize that it didn’t have to be that way.

Homemade sauce is not only easy and customizable, but also much better for us than the canned stuff. A handful of simple ingredients always trumps stumbling over scary, unrecognizable ones on the back of a Preggo can. Although I can't deny that until pretty recently, I have enjoyed  those cans of Preggo. No shade. But we grow!

I work with three basic sauces. A marinara, an alfredo, and lovely mix of the two- a creamy marinara. They’re also all very versatile- ever tried a white lasagna? It’s fabulous. Of course they take a little more time than cracking open a premade jar, but isn’t the extra fifteen minutes worth it? These no fail sauces are the basis of tons of my regular recipes.

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Basic Marinara Sauce

8 oz can of tomato sauce
8 oz can of crushed tomatoes (if you’re into a chunkier sauce)
A medium diced onion
Couple of cloves of minced garlic
A dash of red pepper flakes
Dried oregano
Dried basil
About a tablespoon of sugar
Salt & pepper
Couple tablespoons of olive oil

Over medium heat, sauté red pepper flakes, oregano, and basil in olive oil for about a minute to release their flavor. Add onion and garlic, sauté until they soften and your kitchen smells like heaven. Side note: be careful here not to let your garlic burn! Burnt garlic is terribly bitter, and that bitterness can ruin your sauce.

Once the garlic and onion have softened, go ahead and add your can of tomato sauce and give everything a stir. (Add diced tomatoes if you so choose here). Allow the sauce to come to a soft boil (you’ll know when it starts to bubble). Once it does, turn it down to low and allow it to simmer.

At this point, you can give the sauce a taste and determine how you want to proceed. Salt, pepper, and sugar are all a preferential thing. But I always add the tablespoon of sugar to balance the acidity of all the tomato. It doesn’t make the sauce sweet, just rounds everything out.  

Alfredo Sauce

Couple of cloves of minced garlic
Couple tablespoons of flour
A cup of milk (have a little more on hand in case the sauce gets a bit thick toward the end)
½ cup of shredded or shaved parmesan
Dried oregano
Dried basil
Salt & pepper
Couple tablespoons of olive oil or butter
Teaspoon of lemon juice (optional)

Like the marinara recipe, sauté the oregano, and basil in the olive oil or butter for about a minute over medium heat. Add and garlic sauté until it softens, and once again, your kitchen smells like heaven.

Now we’re going to make a rue. Don’t be scared! It’s simple stuff. Lightly sprinkle the flour into the garlicky olive oil, a tablespoon at a time. Whisk the flour into the oil- it will thicken into a paste. Look, you made a rue!

Slowly whisk the milk into the rue, breaking up the paste. Make sure to distribute the rue throughout the milk, and not to leave any weird flour lumps. Turn down the heat to low.

Go ahead and sprinkle the parmesan into the beautifully smooth sauce you’ve created. Sprinkle it bit by bit, giving it a stir. If using lemon juice, you can add that now. I find that it brightens what’s undoubtedly a super rich sauce. Season with salt and pepper. If the sauce gets a bit too thick for your liking, add an additional splash of milk until it reaches your desired consistency. Just make sure to salt and pepper accordingly.

Tomato Cream Sauce

8 oz can of tomato sauce
A medium diced onion
Couple of cloves of minced garlic
A dash of red pepper flakes
Dried oregano
Dried basil
About a tablespoon of sugar
½ cup of heavy cream
Salt & pepper
Couple tablespoons of olive oil

Prepare classic marinara sauce as described above. At the end, add the heavy cream and give it a good stir. Boom, tomato cream sauce.

Remember, these sauces are subjective. If you want a chunky sauce, add the crushed tomatoes. Spicier sauce? Amp it up with more red pepper flakes. Make them your own! You might never stop at the sauce section in your local grocery store again.