Beef Rice Noodles with Snowpeas

I'm still on my quest to get through all my recipe clippings, and I have a way to go yet! I'm falling behind in my posts a little, so stay tuned for Chicken Baked on Sweet Potato Rosti as well as Irish Stew. In the meantime have a go at beef rice noodles with snowpeas when you want a quick and healthy dinner. On a side note, I've always thought stirfries were pretty healthy (minus coconut milk), however just recently my mother's doctor said no. He claimed the food soaked up the oil. I would like to publicly disagree. Surely if the pan is hot enough you don't need much oil and secondly, olive and vegetable oils are unsaturated. Am I right? Hmm, this is the doctor who said walking 9 holes of golf wasn't enough exercise. Anyway, back to the food.

I preferred this meal to the Honey and Sesame Stir-fried Beef I cooked a little while ago. The marinade had a little more depth and using rice noodles meant all flavours mixed in well and the meal was quick to prepare. I definitely under-utilise rice noodles, dump them in some hot water for a bit, throw them in the pan and away you go. Much quicker than waiting for rice to cook.

So here's the recipe, from an edition of Good Living in about 2004. I think a little bit of ginger might give it a great lift too.

Beef rice noodles with snowpeas

Marinade:

2 tsp cornflour

1 tbsp rice wine
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

300g rib eye or sirloin, finely sliced
500g fresh rice noodles
Vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
100g snow peas, sliced lengthwise
200g bean sprouts, rinsed
1 tbsp rice wine or dry sherry
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
2 spring onions, finely chopped

Combine marinade ingredients and leave beef to marinate for 30 minutes.

Pour hot water ove rthe noodles, gently working them apart with chopstickes. Drain, rinse under cold water, shake dry and rub in a little oil.

Heat a wok (I use a frying pan, even if I had a wok I don't imagine it'd go so well on my electric stove) then add 2 tbsp oil. Add garlic and snowpease, toss well over high heat for 1 min. Add the beef in marinade and toss well until coloured, then tip onto a warm plate.

Add a little extra oil to the pan, and toss the drained noodles and bean sprouts over high heat for 2 mins. Return the beef and snowpeas to the pan, then add the rice wine, soy, oyster sauce and sugar, tossing well. Add a dash of water if dry. Scatter with spring onions and serve.

Serves 4

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.