Dateline: January 20, 2021 Chinese Night-Hunan Beef and Spicy Mixed Vegetables

 I bought some beef strips from FD a while ago and decided to pull them from the freezer and make something spicy to celebrate the Inauguration of Joe and Kamala!

I checked what was in the fridge, and found some brussel sprouts hiding in the vegetable drawer along with a lone bok choy and some leftover broccoli.  Perfect!

I chose Hunan Beef with Cumin after browsing through the NYT Cooking site.  I trusted the recipe as it was a riff on a Fuchsia Dunlop recipe.  I really love her recipes, haven't tried a dog yet!

For the veggies, I decided to wing it and come up with a stir fry that was easy, and quick, and could use the same pan as the beef.

Ingredients

1 package of brussel sprouts, sliced in half

1 bok choy, leaves cut into ribbons and stems chunked

couple of florets of broccoli, leftovers are great

2 small leeks, cleaned and chopped 

3 or 4 pieces of dried tangerine/mandarin peel

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

3 dried chinese hot peppers

1 T light soy sauce

1 T dark soy sauce

1 T chili crisp, Lao Gan Ma brand

2 T neutral oil, canola, peanut, grapeseed, etc

1/2 c stock or water

Method

1.  Steam the sprouts in the microwave for 2 sessions of 2 minutes.  You don't want to over cook them.  This will depend on the strength of your microwave.  Mine, the 2 sessions were perfect.  Hold to the side.

2.  Heat wok.  (I learned a new trick from the internet, if you have cast iron flame tamers, turn them upside down and set wok on top.  The cast iron will heat up and spread the heat better than just setting on the burner.  You're welcome.)  Add oil and swirl around the pan to coat the sides.  Add peels and hot peppers and fry until the peels turn dark brown and the peppers get dark as well.

3.  Add in leeks and stir fry until they start to wilt.  Then add sprouts and bok choy.  Stir fry to coat with the hot oil and begin to darken in spots.  Add the soy sauces, garlic and stock.  Stir and bring to a boil.  Add leftover broccoli and chili crisp.  Stir to incorporate.

4.  Taste, add salt, if necessary, or more Lao Gan Ma, and serve over rice

A shocking result, Bill was just gobbling up the sprouts.....I am not sure he realized that it was brussel sprouts!  It was a perfect foil for the beef.  The beef was also excellent, tender on the inside and firmer on the outside.  I think if I were a more patient cook I would have deep fried the beef instead of shallow frying it.  I did it in 3 batches and probably should have done 4.  My impatience did not effect the taste, just the crispness of the beef.  I would definitely make the Hunan Beef again, perhaps I would use some ground AND whole cumin seeds to amp up the flavor.