[RCP] Summer "beef stew" with Asian flavors

[Robin Garr]

Last night it was hot and humid here, a summery day a month short of the actual start of summer. Nevertheless, when I looked into the fridge and spotted some scraps of leftover, uncooked locavore rib eye and a green pepper, I thought, "Mmm, beef stew!"

Could I fashion such a wintry dish, yet put a lighterweight spin on it for a sultry summery afternoon in May? Well, sort of. I ended up taking the basic ingredients of beef stew, but a steak cut, not stewing beef, and converted them into a quick stir-fry with a touch of Asian flavor. To bring the beef stew concept home, instead of rice I served it over a bed of steamed potatoes. I thought the idea worked nicely. If it wasn't a "light" meal, it was certainly streamlined in character and in the relatively short time it took to bring the dish to the table.

INGREDIENTS

8 ounces rib eye or other beef steak ... this was locavore humanely raised beef from Adam Barr's Barr Farm in Rhodelia, Ky.
Salt
Black pepper
Cayenne
1/2 teaspoon Chinese "five spice"
2 smallish waxy boiling potatoes
1 green pepper
1 sweet onion
Large garlic clove
Thick "coin" fresh ginger
Peanut oil
1/2 to 3/4 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon soy sauce
A few drops sesame oil

PROCEDURE

1. Slice the steak across the grain into thin (1/4 inch) bite-size 1-inch squares. Add salt, pepper and cayenne to taste and the "five spice," toss and set aside.

2. Peel the potatoes and cut them into small (1/4 inch) dice. Simmer in salted water until just tender; shock with cold water to stop cooking; drain and set aside.

3. Cut the green pepper and the onion into squares, roughly matching the size of the prepped beef. Peel and smash the garlic.

4. Heat the peanut oil in a wok, well-seasoned black-iron skillet or nonstick saute pan. Add the ginger and garlic, then the green peppers and onions. Stir-fry until just cooked, and dump them into a bowl. Add a little more oil if necessary and stir-fry the seasoned meat just long enough to brown.

5. Put the stir-fried veggies back in with the meat. Add the chicken broth and soy sauce; quickly bring to a boil. Remove from heat, stir in the sesame oil. Taste to check seasoning, and serve over the diced potatoes.

A hearty red wine is called for. It went fine with Charles & Charles 2009 Columbia Valley Red Wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon-Syrah blend from Washington State.

[Jenise]

Sounds great! Even lighter would have been some grilled bread--not that there's anything wrong with taters.

Never heard of Charles & Charles. Any background on that winery?

[Robin Garr]

Sounds great! Even lighter would have been some grilled bread--not that there's anything wrong with taters.

This generally surprises people, but ounce for ounce, bread is a lot more calorie-dense than taters. Anyway, to keep the tongue-in-cheek "Chinese" shtick going, I liked the idea of (roughly) mocking the texture of rice by using potatoes in small dice.

Never heard of Charles & Charles. Any background on that winery?

It's ... well, not quite mass-market, but Washington wine made for the rest of us at a price we'll pay. It's a collaboration between two Charleses ... Smith of K Vintners and Bieler of Three Thieves. An upscale guy and a jug-wine guy, coming together to make a wine in the middle, I guess. It was a pretty good red, though, well worth the $12.99 local price.
http://www.bielerandsmith.com

We get a lot of their line in Louisville, so it's either some kind of odd pipeline connection - perhaps the same one that keeps us reliably in stock with Edmunds St. John and Laurel Glen - or else it's distributed nationwide.

Anyway, to keep the tongue-in-cheek "Chinese" shtick going, I liked the idea of (roughly) mocking the texture of rice by using potatoes in small dice.

Could you have gotten wontons?

[Robin Garr]

Anyway, to keep the tongue-in-cheek "Chinese" shtick going, I liked the idea of (roughly) mocking the texture of rice by using potatoes in small dice.

Could you have gotten wontons?

Well ... first, it was a pantry throw-together, so no wontons in the house, no. But I really wanted to stick with traditional beef stew ingredients in a reassembled dish, anyway, so the potatoes pretty much had to be there.