A CUT ABOVE ALL

A month or so ago, I discovered a new cut of beef I had never seen before. "Beef loin flap meat steak" it's called. It looked good, so I bought it. It came in a package of several strips, the meat was red very slightly marbled, it had very fine white lines which I didn't mind at all. When I opened the package, I was happily surprised to find out that this cut came in several 2 X 8 or 9 inch strips. This, I thought, will give me a wide range of possibilities. 

I first tried it in a minestrone type soup: I cut the strips in cubes, browned them in a drop of oil with some onion/garlic mixture, added water, vegetables I had on hand, a can of chick peas, drained of course, some tomato sauce and small pasta. Mom liked it a lot, ate it all even the meat cubes with no problem whatsoever. It melted in your mouth.

Two days later I grilled the remaining strips on a griddle with just a sprinkle of salt and pepper. The little white lines in the meat melted on the grill, and the steaks came out lean, tender and delicious. 

So when I found the same cut yesterday at the store I did not hesitate to bring it home. This time we're going to have something different.

NOT QUITE CHINESE STIR-FRY

                                                    

We don't eat Chinese food. No, let me rephrase that: we rarely eat Chinese food and we have  very limited options to chose from. Why? Oh, where should I begin? My husband likes to have his food whole, not chopped, he likes his meat separate from the veggies, I, on the other hand, think it has a lot of oil, we also don't like spicy food. So the choices are mainly limited to shrimp with broccoli, chicken with eggplant, or maybe orange flavored beef, but very mild. How much of that can you eat in a month? Not much. But today, maybe because the new cut of meat already comes in strips, I thought "can we have something like Chinese, but not exactly Chinese food?", maybe something tweaked to satisfy our taste. I looked around me and found everything I needed: bell peppers, dried mushrooms, different sauces, some Chinese, some not, and a half box of linguini. We'll pretend it's lo main, after all the whole dish is Chinese pretend. You'll need:

                                            

1 and 1/2 lb of beef strips cut in 1/2 x 3 inch smaller strips 

1 red bell pepper and 1 yellow

2 cups dried mushrooms
3 garlic cloves

1/2 box of linguini

1 tsp each: soy sauce, red wine vinegar, cold water

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 and 1/2 tsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 and 1/2 tbsp oil (I used canola)

Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the bell pepper in strips and finely chop the garlic. Fill a big pot with water to cook the pasta. Today I had to cut the linguini in two for the first time in my life, so that all the strips I am cooking will be the same size. In a glass bowl, place the meat strips, sprinkle with the corn starch, drizzle the soy sauce, the red wine vinegar and the tsp of water. Add half the chopped garlic and a sprinkle of salt and pepper, not too much, we have soy sauce in there. Mix, then add a drop of oil and mix again to evenly coat the meat strips. Heat a large non stick skillet over high heat, add the oil and swirl it around to coat the skillet. Add the beef strips in one layer and let them cook undisturbed until browned on one side, about 3 minutes. Clean the bowl where you marinated the beef strips, and put the dried mushrooms in it and cover them with boiling water. Let stand. Stir-fry the beef strips until well browned on all sides. Remove to a platter. In the same skillet cook the remaining chopped garlic with the ginger for a few seconds, then add the bell pepper strips. Stir. Drain the mushrooms and add them to the skillet. Keep the water in case we need to add some to the skillet. Return the beef to the skillet, add the Worcestershire sauce and continue stir-frying. You may add some of the mushroom water to the skillet to make sure that the beef is well cooked and the mushrooms too. If you are using fresh mushrooms, you don't need to soak them of course, and if you need, just add some water or broth to the skillet until everything is done.

Drain the pasta, and place it in the serving dish. Top with the meat and vegetables.

                                                  

TIP: this recipe can be adjusted to your taste, change the meat/veggies/pasta ratio and the spices according to your taste. We like more beef than veggies, actually my husband does, and we can't eat hot or spicy foods, so I made it accordingly. He ate all his veggies though.