Ginger Beef with Snow Peas

Let’s talk about food worth lauding over.  The kind of dishes that don’t mess around with excesses and hit a balance of flavor and texture right on the nose.  Ingredients that are versatile – equally sassy doing the roger rabbit by themselves or the kid ‘n play with a friend.  This dish wants to rock right now – it’s Ginger Beef and it came to get down.  It’s not internationally known…okay, that’s probably enough of that.

Keeping the cooking on this one a breeze involves doing all of your chopping before even thinking about heating up your wok.  Call it your mise en place.  Call it your OCD.  Either way, you’ll be ready to wok and roll (and spout out bad puns, apparently).  Also, to get the beef to cook quickly, you’ll want to slice it so thinly, it’ll seem as if your shaving off pieces.  A trick to make this process easier is to slice the flank steak while it’s partially frozen.  The meat holds it’s shape and gives your knife stability as you cut away.  Yes, yes y’all.

Ginger Beef with Snow Peas

1 lb. of flank steak, very thinly sliced against the grain
1 tbs. of sherry
2 tbs. of dark soy
1 tbs. of sesame oil
1 tbs. of corn starch
2 tsp. of sugar

1 c. of snow peas, sliced in half lengthwise
1 carrot, thinly sliced into rounds
4 oz. of bamboo shoots, sliced into 1/8 in. lengths
4 tbs. of peanut or vegetable oil
2 tbs. of ginger scallion sauce
scant pinch of salt, if needed
scallions and sesame seeds for garnish

In a small bowl, mix the beef with the sherry, dark soy, sesame oil, corn starch and sugar.  Let marinate for at least 10 minutes.

Heat the oil in a wok until smoking.  Add the beef in three batches, browning quickly and then pushing it to the sides of the walk.  Next add the snow peas, carrots and a small pinch of salt.  Cook until the snow peas are bright green and still crisp.  Add the bamboo shoots and ginger scallion sauce and cook until the ingredients are well combined and the beef is cooked through.

Sprinkle with scallions and sesame seeds and serve over steamed white rice.