Sunday Nite Dinner » flank steak

Vietnamese Steak and Watercress Salad

Chuck — Sun, 25 May 2008 06:06:22 +0000

I'm not sure how traditional this salad is, but I grew up eating this Vietnamese steak and watercress salad. It's a colorful salad with tomatoes and eggs, but the star of the dish is the stir-fried beef and onions. It's a great combination of savory and sweet.

The marinade for the beef is commonly used in Viet stir-fries. It's just a simple mix of fish sauce, soy, sugar and black pepper. As a kid, my mom would lightly dress the watercress in a vinaigrette. This time, we dribbled a little nuoc cham (Viet dipping sauce) over it. It's good either way.

The salad is delicious on its own, but we like to eat it with jasmine rice. Give it a try the next time you want a salad as a meal.

Vietnamese Steak and Watercress Salad Recipe

SND Note: The watercress can be lightly dressed with your favorite vinaigrette or Vietnamese dipping sauce. For some heat, add a fresh chili pepper or chili garlic sauce to the marinade.

Beef Marinade Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon corn starch
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

Salad Ingredients

1 pound flank steak, skirt steak or sirloin
1 large onion, halved and sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
2 bundles of watercress
6 large eggs, medium or hard boiled, quartered or sliced
8 ounces cherry or grape tomatoes
Vietnamese dipping sauce (nuoc cham) or vinaigrette

Directions

Trim excess fat and gristle from steak and thinly slice against the grain. In a medium bowl, mix together the fish sauce, soy sauce, corn starch, sugar, black pepper and garlic. Add the beef and toss to evenly coat with marinade.
Trim the stems of the watercress, wash and dry. Set aside.
Heat canola oil in a wok over high heat. Add the onions and stir-fry until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the beef and stir-fry until just browned, but still medium rare, about 4-5 minutes. Remove from wok and set aside.
In a large bowl, lightly dress the watercress with a vinaigrette or Vietnamese dipping sauce. Arrange the watercress on a plate and top with beef, onions, tomatoes and eggs. Enjoy as is or serve with a bowl of jasmine rice (optional).

Makes 4 servings

Tags: easy, eggs, flank steak, onions, skirt steak, tomatoes, vietnamese

Garlic Beef with Asparagus and Shiitakes

Chuck — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:08:23 +0000

Yesterday, I wanted something Asian for dinner... Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, whatever. I just needed something comforting over rice. Hungry Bear suggested making a stir-fry with flank steak and I reminded her about the asparagus in the fridge. So, she whipped up garlic beef with asparagus and shiitake mushrooms.

The key to any stir-fry with thin slices of beef is not to over cook the meat. Hungry Bear made it perfectly as it remained tender and moist. The stir-fry was really flavorful from the oyster sauce, soy, garlic and shiitakes.

Although I wanted rice, Hungry Bear made me eat it over noodles... something about my birthday and long life. I don't believe in that type of stuff, but I obliged. Sadly, the fresh Asian egg noodles we had in the fridge weren't so fresh anymore and had grown a little "hairy." We searched the pantry for a suitable substitute and could only muster up spaghetti noodles. Maybe I should have told you that we wanted to make an East meats West dish!?!

The garlic beef stir-fry was so delicious, it didn't matter if it was served on spaghetti, egg noodles or rice. But maybe I added a few extra years to my life by eating noodles on my birthday!

Garlic Beef with Asparagus and Shiitakes Recipe

SND Note: Any mushroom can be substituted for shiitakes. And asparagus can be replaced with any green vegetable, such as snow peas, broccoli or Chinese broccoli. If you like a lot of sauce, increase the quantity of stock or water to 1 1/2 cups and add additional corn starch slurry to thicken.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds flank steak or sirloin steak
5 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine (shaohsing)
1 1/2 tablespoons of corn starch
4 1/2 tablespoons of garlic, minced
1 pound fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
2 bunches asparagus, trimmed and sliced
4 tablespoons canola oil
5 tablespoons oyster sauce
1-2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce (optional)
1 cup chicken stock or water

Directions

Trim excess fat and gristle from flank steak and thinly slice against the grain. In a medium bowl, combine 4 tablespoons soy sauce, rice wine, corn starch and 2 1/2 tablespoons of garlic. Add beef and toss to coat with marinade.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok over high heat. Add flank steak and stir-fry until just browned, but still medium rare. Remove immediately and set aside.
Add 2 tablespoons of oil to the wok and 2 tablespoons of garlic. Stir-fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add mushrooms and sauté until soft, 3-4 minutes. Add asparagus and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes. Asparagus should still be crisp.
Mix in oyster sauce, chili garlic sauce and 1 tablespoon soy sauce to mushroom/asparagus mixture. Stir in chicken stock. Add the beef and toss gently in the sauce. Adjust seasonings to taste and additional slurry of corn starch to the sauce if necessary. Serve over jasmine rice or noodles.

Makes 6 servings

Tags: asparagus, beef, chinese, flank steak, mushrooms, shiitake, stir fry

Chinese Beef Chow Fun with Broccoli

Chuck — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 07:27:56 +0000

Over the last few months, we've been cooking a lot of Vietnamese food. And the word, "vietnamese", in the tag/ingredient cloud (below on the right side) has grown larger, dwarfing the "chinese" tag. That's fine with me, but Hungry Bear wants to end this trend and make sure her peeps' food is more represented on SND. So yesterday, she made beef and broccoli chow fun (chao fen).

We both love chow fun, but rarely order it at restaurants because it's just too damn oily. If you have access to a good Chinese/Asian supermarket and can get your hands on fresh rice noodles (he fen or haw fun), beef chow fun is best made at home. Prepared with fresh ingredients, minimal oil and Chinese broccoli, dare I say chow fun can be a healthy, balanced meal. It's sad Chinese food prepared in most restaurants is greasy, salty and generally bad for you, whereas traditional Chinese cooking can be healthy and flavorful.

To prepare the chow fun, Hungry Bear referenced two Grace Young cookbooks. We love Grace Young's recipes, but our biggest pet peeve is that her recipes are always proportioned to serve 4 to 6 as part of a multi-course meal. Hey, that's great if you have time to cook multi-course meals, but it's no good for people like us who cook in mass quantities. So, we always end up doubling or quadrupling her recipes, hoping it's enough as the main entrée.

This time Hungry Bear only doubled the recipe, reduced the oil and added Chinese broccoli to the beef chow fun recipe found in The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen. With fresh ingredients and perfectly cooked flank steak, this was no doubt the best chow fun I've ever had. After adding a dash of chili garlic sauce, I was one happy, chow-fun-eating camper. Now I'm looking forward to the next Chinese dish, as Hungry Bear attempts to restore the Chinese/Vietnamese balance on SND.

Chinese Beef and Broccoli Chow Fun (Chao Fen) Recipe

SND Note: The key ingredient in this recipe is the fresh broad rice noodle (he fen or haw fun). The rice noodles are sold unrefrigerated in 1 pound sheets that are folded over like a large cloth napkin. Normally, chow fun is made with a lot of oil to prevent the noodles from sticking to the wok. Because we use less oil, some of the noodles stick to the wok and break apart. The sticky layer should be scraped from the wok and eaten as "rice crisps", which are crusty and delicious.

Ingredients:
8 ounces mung bean sprouts, about 4 cups, rinsed and drained well
1 pound Chinese broccoli
1 pound flank steak, well trimmed
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 teaspoons cornstarch
3 teaspoons Shao Hsing rice cooking wine
2 tablespoons Chinese dried black beans (dul see)
2 pounds fresh broad rice noodles (he fen or haw fun)
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
5 slices of ginger
1 1/2 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 scallions, cut into 2-inch sections
3-4 tablespoons oyster sauce

Directions:
1) Cut the broccoli stalks in half lengthwise if more than 1/2 inch in diameter. Cut the stalks and leaves into 2 inch-long pieces, keeping the stalks separate from the leaves.

2) Halve the flank steak with the grain into 2 strips. Cut each strip across the grain into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place in a shallow bowl, add the soy sauce, cornstarch, and rice wine, and stir to combine; set aside.

3) Rinse the black beans in several changes of cold water and drain. In a small bowl, mash the black beans with the back of a wooden spoon. Leaving the noodles as a slab, cut noodles crosswise into 3/4-inch-wide strips.

4) Heat a large wok or skillet over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil, ginger and garlic to wok, and stir-fry about 15 to 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the beef, spreading it in the wok. Cook, undisturbed, 30 seconds to 1 minute, letting the beef begin to brown. Add the mashed black beans and stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes, or until beef is browned but still slightly rare. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Add 1 tablespoon oil into the wok and stir-fry the broccoli stalks for 30 seconds. Add the leaves and 1 teaspoon salt, stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes until the stalks are bright green and the leaves are limp. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Rinse wok and dry it thoroughly.

5) Re-heat wok over high heat, add 2 tablespoons oil to the wok with the noodles, spreading them in the wok. Cook undisturbed for 1 minute, or until slightly crusty. Add the bean sprouts and stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes. Return the broccoli and beef with any juices that have accumulated to the wok, add the oyster sauce and scallions, and stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes, or until heated through and well combined. Adjust seasonings to taste and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings

[Adapted from The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen by Grace Young]

Tags: beef, broccoli, chinese, chow fun, flank steak, ginger, grace young, noodles, stir fry