Chinese-Style Ginger Beef

I like to think that my husband and I have pretty adventurous palates. Both of us enjoy trying new things, and I have written a few times about his love of spice, particularly in the many types of Asian cuisines. Rather than making innumerable take-out orders, we have been trying harder to recreate some of these dishes at home, keeping ingredients we like, and eliminating ones we don’t (Canned water chestnuts? No thank you!)

Well, I had always assumed that between the two of us and our equally adventurous palates, our children would be the same. Not so much.

My eldest subsisted on PB&J and grilled cheese sandwiches for the first 8 years of his life (thank goodness he’s branched out a bit more in the past couple of years). My second born is fueled purely by bread, cheese, and fruits. From that point of view, he would fit perfectly into southern France.

Even after many attempts at bribery, cajoling, and encouragement, those two still haven’t found the joys of baby bok-choy in a soy glaze, or spicy basil chicken over rice.

But…our third son! The kid who gobbled up spicy Indian curry in year one, and has never looked back! Give this kid a plate of Thai food, and he devours it! Singapore Rice Noodles? They don’t survive five minutes. One of his favorites at home is this spicy and umami-rich Chinese Style Ginger Beef.

Thin slices of quality steak are seasoned and added to a beautiful mix of garlic, ginger, soy, and chilies, to make a savory, spicy, hearty mix. Another five minute dinner, this recipe is fast, easy, and delicious.

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Ginger Beef

8 oz NY strip steak

6 scallions

1 Fresno chili (cut in rounds)

4oz shiitake mushrooms (about 10 mushrooms)

1 tablespoon ginger (minced)

1 tablespoon garlic (minced)

1/2 teaspoon sambal oolek

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

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Thinly slice your steak, mushrooms, scallions, and Fresno chilis into slices of about 1/8″ thickness. (You should get about 10-12 slices per shiitake mushoom, for example).

Season your steak with the salt. This pre-seasoning will make sure enough flavor gets into the very quick-cooking steak.

Mince your ginger and garlic, the idea being to flavor the dish without big obvious chunks of ginger, which can be overwhelming to eat.

Set all of these ingredients aside.

Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet until extremely hot (currents should be running through the oil), then add the garlic, ginger, and sambal for about 20-30 seconds.

Add the thinly sliced mushrooms and chilis, stir, then immediately add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar.

Stir everything together in the pan. After the mushrooms shrink down slightly (about a minute for shiitake), add the beef and scallions.

Stir-fry until the beef is barely cooked (about a minute), and take off the stove. The residual heat will cook the beef the rest of the way, and keep it from getting tough.

Plate, then garnish with some cut up scallions.