Pepper Steak Stir-Fry

Once a month or so, I’m going to start posting recipes and stuff to correspond with the cooking videos I’m putting on YouTube. This is my version of pepper steak. It’s probably not technically stir fry if you were to ask someone from Asia. But it tastes good.

Here’s the video:

ANNOYING STORY

It seems like everyone on the internet gives an annoying story about why they cooked before the recipe. I decided to give it a shot.

I was hankering for a dish with black bean sauce. I first ran into black bean sauce back when I worked at Learjet, before going to seminary. I went to Lee’s Chinese Restaurant (in Wichita, KS) for lunch with a coworker who grew up in China, and he introduced me to the Chinese menu there. I don’t exactly remember what the dish was, but the black bean sauce was phenomenal. Afterwards, I found some black bean sauce at the store and made some tasty food with it. I tried to find it again, but nobody had the right sauce at the store. Sad days. Instead, I had to “settle” for my version of a Pepper Beef stir fry.

Pepper Steak Stir-Fry

Recipe by Fr. MattCourse: MainCuisine: AsianDifficulty: Easy
Servings

2

servings
Prep time

5

minutes
Cooking time

20

minutes
Calories

512

kcal

My version of pepper steak. It’s probably not technically stir fry if you were to ask someone from Asia. But it tastes good.

Ingredients

  • Stir Fry
  • a bunch of green onions / scallions (about 6oz by weight)

  • 1 medium sized yellow onion, chopped into 1-in pieces

  • 1 to 1.5lb beef, thinly sliced or shaved

  • 2 tbsp. butter

  • Sauce
  • a dash fish sauce

  • 1 tsp. oyster sauce

  • 1 tbsp. rice wine

  • 2 tbsp. coarsely ground black pepper (less if you are sensitive to spice)

  • 3-5 cloves garlic, minced

  • ginger, minced or ground (don’t know how much, just do what feels right, honestly, the ginger is optional for this recipe)

  • 2 or 3 tbsp. dark soy sauce

  • 1 tbsp. light soy sauce

  • IF YOU DON’T HAVE DARK & LIGHT SOY SAUCE:
    4 tbsp. all-purpose soy sauce (Kikkoman or something like that)

Directions

  • prepare all your ingredients before beginning to cook
  • prepare sauce by mixing all sauce ingredients in a bowl
  • heat the pan on high heat, the highest your stove can go
  • melt the butter in the pan
  • when the butter is bubbling and smells great, add the onion
  • when the onion is just starting to brown on the edges, add the beef
  • double check to make sure the stove is as high as it’ll go
  • stir the items in the pan a lot (It’s a stir fry!!!)
  • when beef is about 2/3 done, add the sauce and stir everything to combine
  • after sauce is stirred in, add the green onions on top and let it all cook for a minute or so before stirring
  • stir everything together
  • keep stirring frequently
  • when the beef is cooked and the sauce is nice and thick, you’re done!

Recipe Video

Notes

  • Makes 4 servings when served with rice or 2 servings when served alone

Blessings

The last few years have been very contentious in our country. On this Thanksgiving Day, let us strive to look past what separates us. I find President Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation (full text below), given in the midst of the bloodiest and most divided time in our national history, a fitting reminder and reflection of what we must do this day:

I recommend […] that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it

Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation of Thanksgiving (1863)

The preface at Mass today similarly reminds us of the great gifts our Heavenly Father has given to us, and the great responsibility we have as a result of these gifts.

You have entrusted to us
the great gift of freedom,
a gift that calls forth
responsibility and commitment
to the truth that all have a fundamental dignity before you.
In Jesus, through his Death and Resurrection,
we find our ultimate redemption,
freedom from sin,
and every blessing.

Preface for Thanksgiving Day (USA)

Today, let us thank God for his great gifts to all of us: the gift of our lives, the gift of our redemption, the gift of our families, friends, and loved ones, the gift of our prosperity as a people sojourning to God. Let us offer him praise in Thanksgiving of the many blessings he gives us daily which we do not perceive, for the sun and the moon and the stars, for the air we breath, for the bountiful harvest of the earth. As we ponder these gifts, let us offer penance for where we have wronged our neighbor and renew our efforts pray for the peace and prosperity of our entire human family.

Happy Thanksgiving.


Proclamation of Thanksgiving

Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Gardiner

October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

From Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 6 as found on: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln6/1:698?rgn=div1;view=fulltext

world history series

I recently found a series on YouTube recently called “Crash Course: World History”. Each clip runs about 15-20 minutes, and will tackle one topic of world history. In addition to the Western history that most of us learned in school, this series discusses Eastern history as well. I had no idea that the history classes I had in high school skipped so much!

If you like history at all, you should check this series out.

spinach and cheese omelet

I normally eat a one egg omelet breakfast during the week. I crack the egg into the pan, pop the yolk and then throw a slice of cheese on top. It’s yummy. On Saturday, however, I usually eat a two egger, and throw some spinach (or arugula) into it for some variety. They’re dead simple to make, but here’s a recipe anyway!

Ingredients:

  • 2 large eggs (I like the brown ones, but use whatever you like)
  • 1 big handful of spinach
  • grated parmesan cheese (or any hard Italian cheese)
  • 1/2 tbsp butter
  • salt, pepper, cumin, Sriracha

Get a nice non-stick pan, throw the butter in and melt it. Once it’s all liquid and foamy, throw the spinach in. While the spinach is cooking, I beat the eggs. I usually put in about a tablespoon of water, some salt, pepper and cumin with the eggs before beating them. I use a fork and try to get a decent amount air in the mix. Make sure the whites and the yolks are completely combined. The omelet won’t come out as nicely otherwise.

When the spinach starts to wilt, I add the eggs and make sure that they get all around the pan. When the eggs start to thicken, I add a bunch of yummy cheese. Once the eggs are mostly hard (e.g., cooked through), I fold the omelet. After I let it brown a little more, I flip it onto the plate, throw some Sriracha on top and chow down!

Sorry—no pictures for this one. I forgot, and I’m out of eggs.

meal plans

One of my major stumbling blocks in losing weight is that I go out to eat—a lot. I’ve found that when I make a meal plan for the week, I tend to not eat out as much. This is good for two reasons: eating out is not cheap—it is very possible to have homemade meals cheaper than anything from McDonald’s—and it’s not particularly healthy.

I don’t usually plan breakfast—my breakfast is too light to have a real plan. For a few months, I ate Nature Valley crunchy granola bars for breakfast. One packages has two bars and 180 calories. Lately, I’ve been eating one-egg mini-omelets with cheese. These add up to about 140 calories (70 calories from each component).

For lunch this week, I’ve planned salads. Salads are quick and easy to make, and they are very easy to change so that I don’t get bored. I have a salad recipe book that I purchased1  for ideas when I’m not feeling particularly creative. This week, I am eating a simple green tuna salad. The ingredients are: a handful of spinach; a handful of arugula; half a small onion, sliced; one can of tuna, drained and rinsed a few times; and some parmesan cheese on top. I make the dressing myself too: 3 parts grapeseed oil (I ran out of Extra Virgin Olive Oil…) to one part white wine vinegar, with a dash of salt and some herbes de provence to kick it up a notch. It’s a very tasty salad, and fills me up very well. Not bad for about 400 calories!

Supper is always the tricky meal. I have the most trouble eating my planned suppers. This week I plan to make a simple chicken stir fry, but I have already managed to not eat it once. The trouble I tend to run into is that I am not home many nights of the week. I won’t be home again until Thursday night, so we’ll see if I actually manage to get to my chicken stir-fry this week.

By keeping my meal plans simple and repeating the items throughout the week, I can buy ingredients once a week and everything averages out to rather low cost. A carton of eggs and a bag of cheese cost maybe $5 together if you buy the good eggs. That’s less than a buck a meal, because the eggs will cover two weeks. A couple of bags of salad greens, a bag of cheese (I’m lazy and grating cheese is a pain.), some onions and 5 cans of tuna cost around $15-$20, which is $3-$4 per meal. Not quite as cheap, but healthy and filling. My chicken stir fry is really cheap. The chicken was $6 for a 3lb bag plus about $3 for veggies. That’s around $2 per meal when you add in the rice and spice costs. Awesome.

footnotes

1. Twelve Months of Monastery Salads: 200 Divine Recipes for All Seasons. This is a very nice recipe book. Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette has quite a few very nice cook books—I’ve purchased three. Some recipes are duplicated between books, but overall they are all simple and delicious. I try to buy from my local Catholic book store, but they didn’t stock this particular book.

fun things to watch, to read and to hear

There is a slight problem with writing every day’s memorial, feast or solemnity—not every day has one! Instead, here are a few of the things that I keep up with on a (mostly) regular basis.

National Catholic Register (website) – this website is a great daily read. They publish a couple of interesting articles every day, in addition to hosting about a dozen blogs. They also have a twice-daily blog roundup. You have to be careful that this doesn’t take your whole day.

XKCD (website) – this is a nerdy web comic published on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It’s a fun combination of current events, math, physics, engineering and computer nerds. Sometimes I disagree with the author’s viewpoints, but I’ve never seen one that’s not safe for work.

Crash Course World History (youtube) – this is a YouTube video series published weekly. I haven’t watched all of them, but the first dozen or so are very well done and seem to do a good job of seeing the whole picture.A 15 minute video can’t teach everything about a topic in history, but these do a good job getting the important facts out. They also have a biology course, but I haven’t watched any of those.

Catholic Stuff You Should Know (website, podcast) – this is a semi-regular podcast made by some seminarians and seminarians who are now priests in the Denver Diocese. They are awesome and cover all sorts of interesting Catholic topics. I’ve probably spent way too much time listening to these guys in the last couple of weeks.

life update

In December, my Knights of Columbus council elected me Grand Knight. Since then, life has been a little crazier than usual.

I still plan to finish the “Love” article series, but haven’t had a chance to get the rest of it out. While browsing my local Catholic book store, I found Pope Benedict’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) and want to read that before continuing with that series.

My weight loss plan is not gone, and I have not gone up. I just haven’t dropped as much as I’d have liked. I’m at 229.8lbs as of today. By the end of May I plan to drop to 225lbs or lower–the final goal being between 190lbs and 200lbs. It seems that it is getting harder to drop weight as I get lighter and lighter. My workout has also changed a few times–I’m due for a workout update soon.

I have also retried my gardening attempts this year–last year was not a good year to try it out. Something about setting a record for most days over 100 in recorded history.

I have several other interesting articles planned; hopefully, I will be able to get those written (or at least started) this summer!

italian style lamb meatballs

1/3 lb of delicious meaty tastinessI like big meatballs.

I don’t want tiny meatballs that sit, dwarfed, atop a pile of spaghetti. I want meatballs that stand on their own—that don’t need a base of spaghetti to fill you up. I don’t even want spaghetti with my meatballs—that means that I’m just eating filler.

So, without further dramatization, I present my recipe for big meatballs. This time I made them with lamb, but they’re pretty much the same with any meat. The main difference is the spices, and even then not much…

I use dried herbs. Purists will probably insist on fresh. Fresh is fine if you get excited about mincing herbs and go through them before they go bad. Otherwise: dried is close enough.

I cook these in a tasty tomato sauce, so you get a bonus recipe here: zesty tomato sauce!

We need to make the tomato sauce first.

Tomato Sauce:

  • 2tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 can (14.5oz) diced tomatoes
  • 1 can (6oz) tomato paste
  • 1/2cup veggie/chicken/whatever stock (or water)
  • 2tbsp each: dried oregano, dried parsley
  • 1/2tbsp dried thyme
  • 1tsp sugar
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 lemon
  • 1tbsp Tabasco-type sauce

Step 1: Fry the garlic for about a minute in the nice, hot EV Olive Oil.

Step 2: Add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste and stock.

Step 3: Add the herbs, sugar, salt and pepper.

Step 4: Squeeze all that tasty juice out of the lemon and into the sauce.

Step 5: Add the Tabasco. You could also add dried chili flakes or something else spicy. We’re really just doing this to give the sauce one last kick in the pants.

Step 6: Stir it all up. (I hope you felt inclined to stir as you added things, but it should be OK either way.) Set it to simmer while you prep the meatballs.

Meatballs:

  • 1lb of ground lamb
  • 1 egg
  • 8 Ritz-style crackers, crushed up into tiny bits
  • 2tbsp dried basil
  • 1tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2tsp curry powder (yes, really: curry powder)
  • salt
  • pepper

Step 1: Put it all in a big bowl and get dirty mixing it up with your hands!

Step 2: Fashion 3 MASSIVE 1/3lb meatballs. I said I like them big and I meant it. They may be just as tasty small, if you are so inclined.

Step 3: Place these meatballs gingerly in the tomato sauce, which should be slightly bubbly by now. If the sauce doesn’t cover the meatballs, add some water so that it does. Stir things up a little bit, but be careful not to destroy your works of art.

Step 4: Put a lid on the pan, and let it all simmer 20 minutes.

Step 5: EAT YOUR MEATBALLS. Make sure to ladle copious amounts of sauce on them. I had green beans (you just heat them…) on the side and creamy leek soup as an appetizer with my meatballs.

This should feed 3 hungry people, or 1 massive beast of a hungry person.

crema di porri–creamy leek soup

creamy and leekyThis is an Italian recipe for leek soup. I’ll be honest, I got it off another website and didn’t change it much. But my recipe has a picture and much more lively text.

Ingredients:

  • 3 average, ordinary, whatever your grocer sells, leeks
  • 2tbsp Olive Oil (Extra Virgin or Pure)
  • 2tbsp flour
  • 1 box (32oz) of veggie stock—if you get broth don’t add any more salt!
  • 1tbsp ground cumin
  • salt
  • 2c milk (I like 2%)
  • parsley, chopped (a nice sized pile)
  • parmesan cheese (don’t get pre-shredded—it shreds fast and easy and tastes better when you buy a wedge)

Step 1: Clean and chop the leeks. Leeks are somewhat annoying to clean. They are grown by piling sand/dirt up around them so they tend to have lots of dirt in the leaves. The easiest way is to cut the tops off about 1/2 inch below where the leaves all join together and then cut about 1/2 inch off the bottom (that’s just to get rid of the roots). Then cut some slits through about 12 of the remaining leek from the middle to the greener end. Open it up and you should see the dirt. Wash the crap out of these things. In fact, if you can, soak these for a while before proceeding. It’s worth it not to get yummy sand in your soup.

Chopping these things is easy. I just slice them. Since we quartered the thing earlier when cleaning it, it works out nicely.

Step 2: Heat up the Olive Oil in a big pot. (OK, maybe a medium pot works, but my pot is big.)

Step 3: When the Olive Oil is nice and hot (if it’s smoking it’s too hot) add the chopped leeks and fry them for a minute or two—just long enough to show those leeks you mean business.

Step 4: Add the flour and stir it up really good. You want the leeks to be thoroughly coated with flour so that it won’t make clumps when you…

veggie stock--it's unsaltedStep 5: Add the veggie stock. Stir while you add it to prevent flour clumps. I use this stuff:

Step 6: Wait 20-30 minutes. Stir occasionally. You want a simmer here. NO BOILING!

Step 7: Remove the pot from the heat and add the milk. Stir while you do this.

Step 8: If you want to blend it, this is where you would do it. I’m lazy, so I didn’t.

Step 9: Put the pot back on the heat for 5 minutes. Remember: Simmer.

Step 10: While simmering, add the chopped parsley and a bunch of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Step 11: Scoop it out into bowls and eat up!

This can serve 5 or 6 as a first course and 3ish as a main.