Honey and Sesame Stir-fried Beef

Over the last two and a half years I’ve collected hundreds of recipe clippings. A recipe organizer from Kikki.K, given to me by AO’b and MB, has inspired me to work my way through the clippings, keeping what I like and discarding those that I will never cook again.

I’ve already cooked a few things that haven’t appeared on this blog, including lemon and orange delicious pudding and mushroom and white wine risotto. This post features a recipe I made last week, honey and sesame stir-fried beef. It’s a Christine Mansfield recipe published in the Good Weekend 20th Anniversary Issue, 2004. Uh huh, I have uncooked recipes from 2004.

I used a little too much chilli when making this, which masked the honey a bit. It’s an easy recipe to whip up and I served it with rice and steamed greens. The marinade is quick, meaning you can prepare it and forget it, perfect for starting before the gym and cooking and eating when you return, as I did.

Leftover beef, which formed my dinner the following night was delicious! The flavour enhanced, honey stronger and chilli weaker.

This week’s menu includes Chicken on Sweet Potato Rosti (Marie Claire) and Beef, rice noodles and snow peas. I’m also hoping to try Katie’s (Other People’s Food) Licorice and Radicchio Risotto, with the leftover raddichio from the duck dinner. Unfortunately I can’t find powdered licorice root. Katie used licorice drops, does anyone know of anything else that can be substituted in?

Back to the Honey and Sesame Stir-fried Beef:
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp light honey
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 red birdseye chillies
2 tbsp vegetable oil
500 g beef tenderloin fillet, thinly sliced
2 tsp white sesame seeds, lightly toasted
1 bunch chives cut into 5 cm lengths

Combine the first 7 ingredients with half the oil. Add beef slices, mix well and marinate for an hour.

Heat a large wok with half the remaining oil, add half the beef and marinade and toss over high heat so the beef sears and cooks quickly (chopsticks will help keep the beef strips separate). Repeat with the remaining oil, beef and marinade.

Sprinkle the sesame seeds and chives over the beef. The recipe suggests serving with rice, noodles or watercress salad.