Spicy Beef for a spice lover
My husband aka K and I love spice. It is a cultural thing we have taken up several notches.
In our culture a meal can be made up of ground chilli pepper, onions, tomatoes with a hint of ginger and garlic. This is eaten with meat or fish ( his preferred combination) and a side of Kenkey (cooked corn meal akin to an unstuffed tamale) or gari (grated cassava reconstituted as a paste).
So we love our heat.
My challenge was to cook some meat and to make it spicy.
Easy right? Not really.
Hubby doesn;t like vegetables so.... if I don;t want to merely dump beef in a pan and douse it with a chilli paste, i have to build flavour and also create a sauce that can be eaten with rice and can exist with minimal vegetables.
Enter Korean Spicy Beef Stir- Fry Recipe.
Ingredients:
500g beef, sliced into thin strips , washed and drained
1 tbsp oil
2 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced
Spring onions, for garnish
Rice, to serve
Marinade:
½ cup pear, grated (I took out the pear..didn;t see the point but added some rice wine vinegar to tenderize the beef)
¼ cup onion, grated
½ tsp fresh ginger, minced or finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
3 tbsp gochujang (Wasn’t sure what this was so used some good old Sambal Oelek and used some in the stir fry as well)
Instructions:
In a bowl, combine all ingredients for marinade.
Add in beef and mix to incorporate the marinade.
Keep in the fridge to marinate for at least 30 minutes or overnight. ( I went with overnight!!)
To cook, in a non-stick wok or skillet over high heat, add in oil.
Saute garlic and onion and cook until fragrant.
Add in marinated beef. Cook for about 7 minutes or until cooked and caramelized.
Serve with white rice. Garnish with sliced spring onions.
I loved it. It was caramelized and not too sweet ( cos I added more sambal oelek), very rich and deep in flavour.
Well, K Hubby didn;t like it.
He took a heap of it on the side of his rice and tomato stew. I was, of course, excited and then he asked:
“what did you coat the beef with?”
I spun my neck around and said calmly, “it has a bit of brown sugar in it”
“I don’t like it”
He proceeded to eat around the beauty i had created and left that for me. Basically, “come eat your own stuff”.
Sigh.
Pick myself off the ground and dust up and try again.
This will feature in a few weeks time, with no sugar and more ginger and garlic to balance it out.
HE. WILL. EAT. IT!