Chinese-Style Beef and Mushroom Stir-fry

I've been cooking beef dishes more and more lately simply because the little girl seems to eat more when beef is on the table.  Not that she eats the beef itself, but she likes the sauce mixed with her rice.  So what I do is mince the cooked beef finely and add them to the rice with the sauce!

500 grams sirloin
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 to 6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large onion, sliced thinly
200 grams fresh button mushrooms, sliced
salt and pepper, to taste
cornstarch slurry

Slice the beef as thinly as possible and marinate in the oyster sauce and soy sauce mix for about 20 minutes.

Saute the garlic and onion until soft.  Add the sliced mushrooms.  When the mushrooms are lightly browned, put the beef (and all the marinade) in the pan and stir fry.  I usually add about 1/4 cup of hot water because I want more sauce!  Season to taste and then thicken with cornstarch slurry.  Serve immediately!

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!

Quick Beef Stroganoff

This was probably the next dish I cooked after the chicken ala king.  Why?  because it's easy and my brothers loved it!  By easy I do mean that it can be whipped up in about 30 minutes, assuming the beef is not frozen, that is.

It's very versatile too.  It can be served over rice or noodles, or pasta.  The meat used can be pork or chicken.  And it can be saucy or on the dry side... whatever floats your boat!

500 grams beef sirloin

1 large sweet white onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 to 1 cup sliced button mushrooms
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cooking cream
stock or water, as needed
salt and pepper, to taste

Pound the sirloin "steaks" with a mallet to tenderize.  Slice into strips.  Marinate in a tablespoon of soy sauce, a generous pinch of ground black pepper and juice of 1/2 a lemon, for about 5 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute the white onion slices until soft.  Add the garlic and saute until fragrant.  Throw in the mushrooms.

While the mushrooms are cooking, add about 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour to the marinated beef and mix well.  Then add the beef to the pan and stir fry a few minutes, until the beef is almost done.  The mixture will be quite sticky.  Add the sour cream and continue cooking, stirring to combine.  If the mixture is too thick, add stock or water.  To make the dish very saucy, add more milk and/or stock or water.  Season with salt and pepper, as desired.  Do not overcook or the beef will be tough.

Serve hot, over steamed rice.

Nilagang Baka

Nilagang baka literally means boiled beef.  Of course the dish is not merely just beef that's boiled.  It's actually a soup made with beef, simmered for a long time (in my case the whole night in the magic cooker), with carrots, potatoes and native white corn.

How's this different from bulalo?  Well, I don't really know, but from what I understand, the main difference is the cut of beef used.  In bulalo, the bone marrow is essential, so the cut used for bulalo is the shank part.  And when I was very young, the soup was made using one big piece of meaty bone beginning the kneecap (or thereabouts, if I remember correctly) as the closed end and the other end as the open one, from where we would try to coax out the marrow using a chopstick or barbecue stick.  Anyway, for any other cut of beef, it's nilaga.

Personally, I've always thought that bone-y parts make better soup than meaty parts.  But obviously, the bones cannot be eaten, so some meat has to be present too.  What I usually do is get about half a kilo of bones (in our nearby market, the kneecap is sold separately and at a friendlier price) and half a kilo of brisket (or other meaty part).

Here's a bowl of my nilaga! 

The recipe:
1/2 kilo beef bones
1/2 kilo beef brisket (or other meaty part suitable for stewing)
6 slices of ginger
1 large red onion, halved

4 pieces of native corn, sliced into 3 to pieces each
1/2 kilo potatoes, cut into large cubes
about 1 large carrot, cut into large cubes
Baguio pechay, or pechay tagalog

Parboil the beef and bones.  Discard water, clean the pot and rinse the beef.  Put back the beef bones and beef into the pot; put in the ginger and onion.  Add enough water to cover the beef at least an inch.  Simmer at least 3 to 4 hours (until beef is tender, in my case I left it in the magic cooker overnight).  Add the corn after about 2 hours and continue simmering.  When the beef is tender, transfer the beef and corn to another pot.  Strain the broth/soup to the new pot and place back on the stove and bring to a soft boil.  Season to taste.  Add the potatoes and carrots and simmer until cooked.  Then add the pechay, cover and turn off the fire.

Bistek Tagalog, My Way

Bistek is the Filipino version of beef steak.  Usually, the beef is sliced thinly then marinated in calamansi juice and soy sauce then seasoned with salt and pepper.  It is then cooked with onion rings.

My version, however, is a bit different - mainly because I don't like using thin slices of beef, instead I like small chunks of tenderloin (whether beef or pork).  I also like my bistek sour (more than the usual), with a lot of thick sauce (thickened with cornstarch) and with caramelized sweet onions mixed right in (not as garnish).

My version -

500 grams tenderloin, cubed or sliced as preferred (beef or pork)
6 tablespoons light soy sauce
3 tablespoons calamansi juice
5 tablespoons low fat milk
1 to 2 teaspoons black peppercorns, lightly smashed

1 large sweet onion (Vidalia), sliced into rings
1/4 to 1/3 cup water
salt and pepper, to taste
cornstarch slurry

Marinate the tenderloin pieces in soy sauce, calamansi juice, milk and peppercorns at least an hour (personally I don't recommend a too long marinating time).

Heat oil gently and caramelize the onion rings (this may take some time over a gentle heat so as not to burn the onions).  Remove the onions and increase heat to medium or medium-high.  Using a slotted spoon, lift the meat pieces and place into the frying pan.  Stir fry to almost the desired doneness.  Remove the beef from the pan and pour in the marinade.  Heat gently; taste the marinade and adjust with water and seasonings, as preferred.  Reduce a little or thicken with cornstarch slurry.  Add in the meat and onions and toss for the sauce to coat the meat and onion pieces.  Remove from heat and serve immediately.

(I usually "undercook" the beef because it still "cooks" even off flame and overdone beef is not tasty at all!  Also I almost never add salt anymore, but then honestly, my taste buds veer towards "matabang" or being a bit bland.  I do, however, at times, add more calamansi juice.  For those unable to get calamansi juice, lime or lemon will do.)