Spicy Szechuan Beef

Spicy Szechuan Beef

If you need to take a break from fish and tapas and spice things up a bit, this szechuan beef recipe will knock your socks off (or set them on fire)... 

Remember, you can adjust any recipe to suit your tastes...just reduce the amount of cayenne in this one to turn down the heat.   I have also made this substituting broccoli, mushrooms and matchstick carrots for the peppers...also delicious.  Add whatever you like to make it your own, then tell me what you think!  A big glass of iced, green tea is a good accompaniment to this.  

Ingredients:

• 1 lb round steak, cut across grain into thin slices (slightly freezing steak first makes it easier to cut thin, uniform slices)
  
• 1 small yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
  
• ½ red bell pepper, cut into strips
  
• ½ orange or yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
  
• Marinade and sauce ingredients, below

Peppers and onions ready to go

For the marinade, in a medium bowl combine:

• 1/4 c. soy sauce
  
• 1 tblsp. sugar
• ½ tsp. pepper
• 2 tblsp. canola or veg. oil—do not use olive oil for stir frying—it burns at a much lower temperature than canola or veg. oil.
• 2 tblsp. cornstarch

Whisk together marinade ingredients until cornstarch and sugar are dissolved.  Thinly slice beef and let it stand in the marinade while you cut up the veggies and mix up the sauce (set aside).

Marinade

Slicing the beef

Marinating the beef

For the sauce, in a small bowl combine & set aside:

• 4 tblsp. Soy sauce
  
• 1 tblsp. Sugar
  
• 2 tblsp. Hoisin sauce
  
• 1-2 tsp. cayenne pepper (I use 2 tsp. because I like it really hot, but the result is too painful for some...maybe start with 1 tsp. and see how that goes)
  
• ½ c. water
  

Drizzle large skillet or wok with canola oil and heat on high.  Add marinated steak, in small batches to avoid crowding the meat.  Cook meat on one side until browned and starting to caramelize, and then flip/stir to cook all the way through.  If the meat is very thin, it will cook in a matter of only a couple of minutes.

Stir-fry the beef

Remove cooked beef to a clean bowl and continue cooking the rest of the meat in batches as necessary until all meat is browned and cooked through.  Set aside.  Discard any unused marinade.  

Stir-fry the veggies

Add the meat back in and pour in sauce, cook to thicken and heat through

In same skillet, add peppers and onion and stir fry until vegetables begin to soften.  Add all meat back into skillet and toss to combine.  Add prepared sauce and cook until thickened and all is heated through. Serve over sticky rice.

Ready to eat!