Stirfry Beef and Peppers

When I was still a child, the main meal in my parents' house was dinner (served usually around 6:30 in the evening).  It usually consisted of a soup or vegetable dish and a meat or fish dish, and steamed rice, of course.  The meat dish was almost always a stir-fry dish, since it was the easiest and fastest type of dish.  And it would be ready in less than an hour.  That was considered fast enough, considering food preparation (in those days there was no such convenience like sliced meats or vegetables).

This dish is an example of such "fast" food in those days.

These days, however, this dish is even faster!  It is ready to eat in 30 minutes.  Talk about fast food!

The secret is buying pre-sliced beef, and pre-sliced vegetables, if available.  I used super thin slices of rib-eye.  I sliced the peppers myself since I didn't find pre-sliced ones.  Still, since I did the slicing while the beef was marinating, there was no time "wasted". 

400 grams super thinly sliced rib-eye beef
2 tablespoons soy sauce
a dash shaoxing rice wine
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 large yellow bell pepper, julienned
1 large green bell pepper, julienned
cornstarch slurry

Marinate the beef in the soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and black pepper for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Towards the end of the marinating time, heat oil in a frying pan until very hot.  Throw in the julienned peppers (as well as a pinch of salt) and stir fry a couple of minutes until half done.  Remove from the pan and let the oil heat up again.  Then throw in the beef and stir fry.

Add back the peppers.  If the mixture is too dry, add 2 to 4 tablespoons of water or stock.  Adjust the seasonings according to personal taste and thicken with cornstarch slurry.  Serve hot over steamed rice.

Dinner in (almost) a flash!