My stir fry attempt number 812!

'Making a great beef stir fry is not a piece of cake. I get that! This is especially true, if you are going for a truly winning recipe!' DanO Demento circa 2015

OK, so this was going to be my stir fry attempt number 812. (Please dear reader, just don't fault me for trying). At the ripe old age of 65, I was still bravely carrying forth a culinary effort originally begun at the tender age of 15. And yes, while my peers were moving on to Junior High, and then to High School and even college; I was existing in a damp basement with only a Janis Ian record, a dented wok and an old propane grill for company! At night, I'd scrounge around in back alley dumpsters for bits of green pepper and other edible odds and ends. Most days, my stir fry efforts were an abysmal failure. I remember once on the 70's, while in a drug induced stupor and listening to Jimi Hendrix, I'd assembled a truly nightmarish mix! It contained only some chunks of meat, Worcestershire sauce and chopped cantaloupe... seriously? Hey, I was surviving back in those days, just not eating very well...

2013 AD- Man, the decades came and went by so darn quickly... (Alas, opportunities to make something of myself also came and went even more quickly). Sadly, all those years I spent in a basement attempting recipe after recipe, were not very kind to me physically. Yet over that time, I did became a man, (abet a person who was sullied and intellectually shallow), as I had foregone any formal education while engaged in my search for the Holy Stir-fry Grail!

Looking back. I realized I was abnormally obsessed with that effort, even to the point of self destruction! (I'd even had a tattoo placed on my forehead that read 'HSG' for crying out loud)! A mark that I'm sure chased many a promising young woman away. And still, time moved ever forward...

2015 AD – At last! Now, an aging and decidedly ugly old gnome, I'd finally stumbled across a recipe that I thought just might vindicate myself lo these many years! Please, let me share.... In the background Janis sang 'At Seventeen'.....

Ingredients:

1/4 cup beef, cubed

1 banana pepper, sliced

1/4 bell pepper, sliced

1/4 onion,sliced

4 mushrooms, sliced

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Rosemary, just a twig

Oregano, a dash

olive oil, ½ tsp

Heat all the above in a frying pan over medium heat until done! See! That's pretty darn easy and awesome. Refrain: 

'I've learned the truth at 65, on stir fry beef you can survive. While others strive to be supreme, I've been living a hot pepper dream....Yes, small town eyes will gaze at you when exceptional food exceeds accounts received!' 

Anyway, enjoy!

Stir fry deluxe with rice!

In the recent past, I've posted a couple of blogs that were dedicated to simple beef stir fry recipes. I like to prepare these for a number of reasons; 1) the recipe satisfies my desire for meat, 2) they are easy to make and 3) they taste so darn good! This ez recipe is a take-off on those ideas:

Ingredients:

1 cup instant rice

145 grams cubed beef

35g cherry tomatoes, cut in half

58g bell pepper, chopped

58g red onion, chopped

34g mushrooms, sliced thin

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp olive oil

dash garlic salt

pepper to taste

Directions:

Make the instant rice up before hand. Heat a small frying pan to medium heat and add the oil. Add the veggies and sauté for a couple of minutes, then add in the beef and other seasonings. Cook for about three minutes, plate on top of a pile of rice and your all done!

Making do with cheap cuts of meat!

Sometimes I just have to laugh out loud when I see our President speaking on the TV, telling everyone how much better off we all are in this, his 5^th year in office. Well, maybe the poor are better off (and I'm pretty positive the rich are not hurting too badly), it's just us common working folks who are caught in the middle and who are making the tough choices!

Recently, I went to my local grocery store with the idea of buying myself a good steak, but the sticker shock caused me to immediately downgrade to something a little cheaper... (Those small strip steaks I used to by for about three bucks were now way up there! And, those really good tasting New York strips and Fillet Mignon's? Nope! No way Jose)!

$15! No way...

So, pictured above is what I was able to buy for just about $2.70. As you can see, not very appetizing. Reminded me of something out of Portnoy's Complaint. But, let's see what I can do with it.

Hmm, stir fry came immediately to my mind. I began by slicing one of the 'steaks' into thin strips. These were then placed into a plastic baggie along with a 'secret marinade¹' overnight in the

fridge. Theoretically, a good marinade will act to break down any tough fibers thereby making that cheap cut of meat easier to chew.

This next morning, I cut up bell pepper and and half a small onion and stir-fried everything in a hot skillet that contained olive oil, rosemary, basil and oregano. How'd this deal smell while it was cooking? You'd have to be there. But, suffice it to say, it was heavenly.

For the recipe base, I elected to make up some instant rice – always a good idea with any stir fry recipe. As you can see, this dish not only looks appetizing, but it also tasted out of this world!

¹ – My secret marinade consisted of mustard, white wine, tobacco sauce, A1 and minced garlic.