Five-Spice Beef Stir-Fry

For some reason, I have been craving Asian food lately. The mix of sweet and salty seems to be exactly what I need right now. Luckily for me, stir-fry dishes tend to come together incredibly quickly ... I also usually have everything on hand except for the meat and veggies.

In this case, I found the recipe on Evil Shenanigans, but noticed some odd things in the ingredient list (mainly how soy sauce was referred to), so I went back to check the original at Kylie Kwong. My final product was a mix of the two recipes, going back to using the dark soy sauce without orange juice of the original, but leaving in the sriracha from the newer version. The sriracha gave it a nice little kick, although you might go a bit lighter if you don't like heat that much. I noticed later that the original uses less honey and I might dial it back a tiny bit as well if I make this again.

I served this with rice and steamed broccoli.

One year ago: Simple Tomato Sauce

Five-Spice Beef Stir-Fry (adapted from Evil Shenanigans and Kylie Kwong, see links above)

500 g beef cut into 2cm slices (I used fondue meat)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
4 tablespoons green onions, sliced
Marinade
1/3 cup honey (consider using 1/4)
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons shao hsing wine, or sherry
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sriracha
2 teaspoons five-spice powder
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Serve with
steamed rice
steamed broccoli or other veggies

1. In a plastic bag mix together marinade ingredients. Add the thinly cut beef and massage to be sure all the beef is well coated. Refrigerate for two hours, or overnight.
2. Once the beef has marinated heat a wok, or large skillet, over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and heat until it shimmers. Add half the beef and allow to sear for thirty seconds before stirring. Cook until the beef is brown, about 1 minute, then remove from the pan. Add the remaining beef and cook until browned. Remove from pan.
3. Add garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant. Add soy sauce. Return the beef to the wok and increase the heat to high. Cook until the beef is coated in a sticky, caramelized glaze, about two minutes. Garnish with green onions and serve with rice and vegetables.