My sweetheart Peggy likes a variety of Chinese foods, especially Pepper Steak. I was due to make some kind of dinner for us and I didn't seem to have any good ideas. Then, in order, I came up with a meal that combined Middle Eastern and Chinese cuisines.
My first thought was to make a refreshing, lively yet filling cold side dish while I tried to figure out what flesh item would be appropriate. I decided to make the Food Nirvana recipe for Mediterranean White Bean Salad, which is quite delicious. I suggest you make it too before proceeding further with this recipe. I made it and after covering it and refrigerating it, along with the salad bowls we would use at the meal, I decided to look at the beef items in our deep freeze. (Note that with the high temperature searing of thin pieces of beef in this recipe different cuts of beef will work well, as in come out flavorful and tender).
I found two nicely vacuum sealed beef filet pieces, and suddenly I had just the idea I needed for dinner. Why not make Chinese Pepper Steak with the filets? Why not, indeed! What a fine idea to have perfectly tender beef in a succulent, mildly seasoned dish. All I would have to make to go with it was a nice bowl of warm basmati rice. I lacked a recipe for Pepper Steak so I did a bit of Internet searching. I found an almost perfect recipe. The "almost" resulted from that recipe's absence of garlic, which I found to be sadly amusing. Well, that was easy to remedy, along with some changes to amounts of the different ingredients.
I actually was excited by the prospect of making and enjoying the Pepper Steak as making it was both new for me and I had found two ways to enhance the dish, with my choice of beef and the use of garlic. Even the basmati rice would have a fine role by blandly separating the very different tastes of the White Bean Salad and the Pepper Steak ... the perfect go between role to maximize pleasure by not having contrasting tastes clash.
Peggy and I were thoroughly happy with our meal, and the Pepper Steak was so good that I knew I had to add the recipe to Food Nirvana. And I need to mention that we had a nice chilled Sauvignon Blanc wine to make the whole meal perfect. Now you will have all the information to make this great meal too.
The recipe below does not include the preparation of the bowl of basmati rice. You can do that easily by bringing two cups of chicken broth to a boil in a saucepan, then mixing in one cup of uncooked basmati rice, then covering it with a lid, then cooking it on very low heat for 12 to 15 minutes. Check the rice for doneness (no remaining liquid in the bottom of the saucepan) after 12 minutes, and only cook longer if necessary. Stir the cooked rice and again cover it with the lid and remove the saucepan from the heat. After five minutes put the rice into a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and put it into a 180 degrees F warming oven.
Ingredients:
2, 6 ounce pieces of beef filet (or other non-fatty beef cut into 1/2" wide strips no more than 1/4" thick)
2 tbsp. of soy sauce
1 tbsp. of sugar
1 tbsp. of corn starch
1/4 tsp. of ground ginger
2 tbsp. of soybean oil
2 large cloves of garlic, diced
1/2 large sweet onion, cut into 1 inch squares
1 large green bell pepper, cleaned and cut into 1 inch squares
1/2 large red bell pepper, cleaned and cut into 1 inch squares
1/2 cup of halved ripe grape tomatoes
A small dish of soy sauce as a condiment at the meal (optional)
Directions:
Turn on the oven to 180 degrees F.
Put your serving dish and your dinner plates or bowls into the warming oven.
Slice the filet pieces into strips 1/4" thick and roughly 1/2" wide and 2" to 3" long on a wood cutting board.
Mix together the soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch and ginger in a one quart bowl until the sugar is dissolved, which creates the marinade for the beef.
Add the filet pieces gradually, mixing and coating them completely with the marinade, then set the bowl aside for 20 minutes or more to let the filet pieces marinate.
Heat the soybean oil in a large cast iron skillet on high heat until the oil shimmers, then add all of the filet (or other beef) pieces, spreading them out flat so one side of each piece will sear.
After three minutes flip the filet pieces over and sear the second side for three minutes.
Put the filet/other beef pieces into the serving dish in the 180 degrees F warming oven.
Add the onion and green pepper pieces to the hot skillet and sauté them with light stirring until the onion becomes translucent.
If necessary, you can add one additional tablespoon of soybean oil to keep the vegetable pieces from sticking to the hot skillet.
Add the diced garlic and continue to sauté for two minutes on high heat while gently stirring the onion/pepper/garlic mixture.
Add the filet pieces back into the skillet and mix them well with the vegetables and cook on medium heat for three minutes.
Add the halved tomato pieces and cook for an additional three minutes while stirring.
Serve the pepper steak in the oven warmed serving dish along with the bowl of basmati rice and your pre-warmed dinner bowls or plates.
Serve the white bean salad along with the chilled salad bowls.
For each guest, cover a generous serving of rice with the pepper steak. If you like you might drizzle a small amount of soy sauce over some of the rice.
A chilled bottle of a light, clean tasting (not sweet) white wine goes very nicely with this meal.
You might try a French White Burgundy, a Pinot Grigio or a Sauvignon Blanc as we did.
Enjoy!