Thursday Recipe - Stir-fried Beef Strips

My mom used to make these and serve them with plenty of rice and vegetables although you could stuff it into tortillas with some lettuce and sour cream for a different taste. They aren't oriental, more like regular steak in flavor. Use a more tender cut for this recipe. Round steak will probably be too tough, although my mom used it more than once. A basic sirloin steak will work just fine. Don't get too extravagant.

Stir-fried Beef Strips

2 T. oil
1 1/2 lbs. good quality sirloin steak cut into strips with the big bits of fat trimmed off
1 onion, sliced into strips
1 T. worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a cast iron frying pan or other very heavy pan until hot. (I flick a drop or two of water into the pan. If it sizzles immediately, it's ready.) Add half the meat strips. Stir around until the meat is seared on the outside. Remove the strips, set aside. Repeat with the other half of the strips.

Add the onions to the pan along with the seared meat. Douse with worcestershire sauce. Cook, stirring often, until meat is as done as you prefer. This usually takes less than ten minutes total.

Remove the meat, add salt and pepper to taste.

Stir 1 T. cornstarch into 1 c. cold water. Add to the drippings in the pan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil and stir one minute.

Serve the meat with the gravy over rice.

Thursday Recipe - Slow-Cooker Oriental Beef

This is one of those "open the fridge and see what I've got" meals. It turned out tasty enough my kids asked me to write the recipe down. So, here it is.

Slow-Cooker Oriental Beef

1 lb beef stew meat (small chunks and very lean work great in this one)
1/4 c. sliced green onions
1 green bell pepper, chopped
5 carrots, cut in small chunks
1/2 c. celery, sliced
1/2 c. ketchup or catsup
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. Thai Kitchen sweet chili dipping sauce

Dump everything in a 3 - 4 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours. Stir. Turn to low and cook for another 1-4 hours, depending on how long you have and how soft you want your carrots. Serve over rice.

You can garnish it with more chopped green onions, finely chopped peanuts or cashews, bean sprouts, or whatever else strikes your fancy.

One of these days, I'm going to find the recipe for sweet Hawaiian Beef that my neighbor taught me years ago when I was twelve. It had raisins and coconut and all sorts of good stuff in it. I haven't managed to recreate it. This recipe is sort of like it. Anyone out there have a recipe for Hawaiian Beef they want to share? I'd love to have it again.