Mouth and nose watering

Mandarin Beef
Betty Crocker Great Tasting Beef In A Snap! Copyright 1991

1 pound beef boneless sirloin or round steak
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 large green bell pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil Are they nuts??? I used about 1 tablespoon and a nonstick pan (and there was already 1 tablespoon in the marinade)
1 teaspoon finely chopped gingerroot
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
3/4 cup shredded carrot
1 to 2 tablespoons chili paste Just add to taste since the heat varies with chili pastes and sauces
green onions (unspecified amount - use as much as you'd like)
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

Trim fat from beef steak; cut beef lengthwise into 2-inch strips. Cut strips crosswise into 1/8-inch slices. Stack slices and cut lengthwise into thin strips.

Toss beef, 1 tablespoon oil, the cornstarch, salt, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, the sugar and white pepper in glass or plastic bowl. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. I put this together in the morning before work.

Cut onions diagonally into 2-inch pieces. What onions? There are no onions in the ingredient list but from the picture I can see they wanted green onions. Cut bell pepper into 1/8-inch strips.

I didn't pull out the ruler and just cut the meat and veggies willy-nilly without paying attention to what the recipe said.

Heat 12-inch skillet or wok until very hot. Add oil; rotate skillet to coat bottom. Add beef, gingerroot and garlic; stir-fry 3 minutes or until beef is brown. Add bell pepper, carrot and chili paste; stir-fry 1 minute. Stir in onions and 1 tablespoon soy sauce; stir-fry 30 seconds.

Makes 4 servings. I served it over some ramen mixed with soy sauce. This isn't really saucy so keep that in mind if you plan on serving it with plain rice.

Per serving (this is with the 1/4 cup oil and without any rice or noodles) : 375 cal, 25 g protein, 7g carbs, 27g fat, 72mg chol, 910 mg sodium
__________________________

I think this is one of the best stir-fries I've made but boy was it spicy. I used chili-garlic sauce (Huy Fong) and I didn't think I used all that much of it because I know it's hot stuff but wowza I was still surprised by the heat. Even my husband who burned through my last jar of the chili-garlic sauce using it on pizza, sandwiches and everything else he ate, thought this was hot. Our noses were running. My son has been getting into spicy foods lately but he was complaining about his belly before dinner and asked for SpaghettiOs so I didn't get his reaction.

There was an omission in the ingredient list. The green onions weren't listed. I used 3-4. I added the white part with the peppers and carrots and then the green parts at the end. This isn't saucy and it didn't call for rice but I had some ramen in the cupboard so I made that. I'm glad I did - it helped cut the heat a bit. With a couple of mini egg rolls, it wasn't the healthiest meal but still better than a lot of other meals. The heat felt therapeutic somehow.

Why this called for 1/4 cup of oil, I have no idea. That is definitely not necessary, especially if you use a nonstick skillet.

This is one of those supermarket check-put line cookbooks that I picked up at that flea market a couple of weeks ago. It was 50 cents, the same price many of the hard cover books were but it appealed to me and it was worth the 50 cents for this recipe because I will definitely be making this again. I thought the marinade was perfect. Sometimes I can't get my meat to brown properly after marinading it but this browned perfectly since the marinade (is that even the proper term here?) wasn't a wet one.

Question of the Day: How many different hot sauces do you have right now? We have two different chili sauces and a bottle of hot sauce. It would be easy to get out of control buying different hot sauces but I've resisted so far.