Week 2 - International Food Project

For the second week of this international food project I made Crispy Ginger Beef. I suppose its Chinese, it was a stir fry recipe, and it came out great. We switched the night for our international night to Fridays, because Dusty wanted to try a bottle of wine. A lot of wines give him a headache so he wanted to be sure he wouldn't have to work the next day.

I chose this recipe because I had over-bought fresh ginger for my Rogan Josh recipe last week. I discovered that I really like ginger. The smell of ginger as I'm grating is luscious. Here's the recipe, this time I pretty much followed it, and again I found the recipe on http://www.recipezaar.com/ posted by Miraklegirl:

Crispy Ginger Beef

1 lb flank steak or sirloin steak, sliced into narrow strips (I used sirloin)

3/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup water

2 eggs

1 large carrot, julienned

3 green onions, chopped,

1/4 cup fresh ginger, minced (I grated it)

5 garlic cloves, minced

canola oil

3 tablespoons soy sauce

4 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1/2 cup sugar

3 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes

1. Combine cornstarch, eggs, and a little water in a large bowl. Stir to make it creamy. Use this to coat the beef. Set aside, and do all your other prep before proceeding.

2. Cut your carrots into julienne strips; chop the green onion; grate the ginger; mince the garlic; and set aside for your stir fry.

3. Combine soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, and crushed pepper in a bowl and set aside for later.

4. Start your rice. I use plain white medium grain rice. Remember 1:3 ratio. One part rice to three parts water, and you'll never go wrong.

5. In a large skillet or wok put about an inch deep of canola oil and heat it up. You want to get it hot enough to fry the beef, but not smoking.

6. Toss the beef in the cornstarch and egg mixture prepared earlier to coat it on the outside. Add it to the hot oil and cook until its crispy on the outside. If you need to, you can cook the meat in batches and set each batch aside on a plate covered with a paper towel to drain off some of the oil. After all of the meat is cooked, drain off most of the oil only enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

7. Now add the carrots, onion, ginger, and garlic -- in that order. Stir fry until the carrots are almost tender.

8. Next add the soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, and crushed pepper mixture to the stir fry. Heat to a boil, then add the beef.

9. Heat all of this together, and you're ready to serve over rice.

Hope you didn't forget the rice and burn it. Stir fry happens quick when its going, you have to be organized and have everything laid out and ready to go. I'm thoroughly enjoying this international cooking expedition. I don't know what country to try next week. I'll be researching recipes until I come up with something that sounds adventurous and appetizing.

There are a few unexpected bonuses related to this project. Dusty is trying new kinds of wine. He did not like the Pinot Noir he bought. I thought it was alright, but it can't go to waste, because I'll just cook with it. We'll try another bottle of wine next week. The other bonus is that that we must eat together at the table -- its a rule. We often eat in front of the TV, which is mostly ok, but cooking like this is making dinner special, and I'm liking that. And of course, trying new recipes is fun, and right now while we're not traveling, we can still taste and dream of exotic places.

Bon Apetit!