Sizzling Beef Stir-Fry

This is wonderful. I would not tell a lie. This is the recipe for Jamie Oliver's Sizzling Beef with Spring Onions & Black Bean Sauce from the Jamie's Ministry of Food book.

I made this for the first time last week and it was utterly delicious. I think it blew the socks off Mr M who has insisted it become a regular on the menu. I quite often avoid stir-fries as to be honest I find them a bit boring and a bit samey but this was different, so tasty and flavoursome, and incredibly simple. One of my favourite parts was the rice - it was only a bit of egg and soy sauce that was added but it made an amazing difference and I will definitely make rice like that again and again.

There was no way I could not share this with you, so here it is. The recipe serves 2 (and certainly no more than 2 - no leftovers here!).

Sizzling Beef Stir-Fy

Ingredients

sea salt and freshly ground pepper
200g long-grain or basmati rice
1 x 230g sirloin or rump steak
a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 a fresh red chilli, finely sliced
2 spring onions, finely sliced
small bunch of fresh coriander
2 tbsps sesame oil groundnut oil
2 tbsps black bean sauce
2-3 tbsps soy sauce
2 limes
1 egg

Method

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the rice and cook according to the packet instructions. Drain the rice in a sieve, run it under a cold tap to cook, then allow to dry out in the fridge.

Trim an excess fat from your steak and slice the meat into finger sized strips. Pick the coriander leaves and put to one side and finely chop the coriander stalks. Get yourself a big bowl and put in the ginger, garlic, chilli, spring onions, coriander stalkes and steak strips. Add the sesame oil and mix everything together.

Preheat a work or large frying pan on a high heat and once it's very, very hot add a good lug of groundnut oil and swirl it around. Add all your chopped ingredients from the bowl and give the pan a really good shake to mix everything around quickly. Stir-fry for 2 minutes, making sure everything keeps moving so it doesn't burn. Add the black bean sauce and stir in 1 tbsp of soy sauce and the juice of half a lime. Keep tossing. Taste and season with black pepper and a little more soy sauce. Remove the pan from the heat, transfer everything to a bowl and cover with tin foil.

Give the pan a quick wipe with a ball of kitchen paper and put back on the heat. Add a lug of groundnut oil and swirl it around. Crack in your egg and add a tbsp of soy suace - the egg will cook quickly so keep stirring. Once it's scrambled, stir in your chilled rice, scraping the sides and bottom of the pan as you go. Keep mixing for a few minutes until the rice is steaming hot, then taste and season with a little soy sauce.

Divide the rice between two bowls. Spoon over the meat and black bean sauce and sprinkle over the coriander leaves. Serve with wedges of lime!

It's easy, but it can be a bit of a juggling act! Most important thing to remember here is that you need to allow time for the rice to cool. This is where you find it helps to read through the recipe in advance... Another thing that helped me was my beloved Kenwood Mini Chopper as I could just put the chilli, ginger, garlic and coriander in and whizz it all up quickly rather than having to stand their chopping everything finely.

Do enjoy!

love & kisses
Mrs M x