Beef and vegetable stir fry

A beef stir fry is easy to make, but also very easy to make poorly.  Here are a few quick tips to help make an excellent beef and vegetable stir fry:

If slicing your own beef, put it in the freezer for a 15-30 minutes to make it easier to slice evenly.

Marinade your meat for 15+ minutes before cooking.  The marinade can be as simple as soy sauce and sugar.

Make a sauce – a little corn starch, soy sauce, brown sugar, and sesame oil makes a nice simple sauce.

Drain the meat.  Heat a skillet with a little oil until it begins giving off just a touch of wispy white smoke.  Brown the beef in batches – don’t fully cover the bottom or your meat will stew rather than brown.  Let it stick and release naturally, so leave the meat alone for the first 30-60 seconds after it hits the hot pan.  When you can move the meat easily without having to pull it off the pan, stir it and cook until browned.

Remove the browned meat, and clean out your skillet.

Sautee your veg in a hot skillet until browned.

Add some ginger, onion, and garlic and some water to prevent the aromatics from burning.

Return the browned meat to the pan, and add the sauce – stir until thickened.

A beef and vegetable stir fry is a simple dish, but marinading and browning the meat, caramelizing the vegetables, and not burning the garlic/ginger brings it up a notch.