Dinner: Chinese Edition

Chinese food is a good go-to for me when ever I have lots of left over chicken or when I'm out of ideas for something to make for dinner. One of my childhood favorites is a dish my grandma came up with. It's a simple mix of stir fried beef, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, and green onion. It may sound like a strange combo, but it tastes delicious and is perfection over rice.

Another simple, always-tasty dish is chicken stir fry. It is pretty much what is sounds like: marinated, diced chicken with green beans, red pepper, and carrot. (Pardon the picture. It was half eaten with I took it.)

HOW TO (Beef):

Thinly slice steak against the grain in 2 inch or so length pieces. Marinate in a mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, turbinado sugar, salt, pepper, a bit of cornstarch, and a liiittle brown rice vinegar and set aside. Meanwhile, dice 6 to 8 scallions, keeping separate the white parts from the green. Chop 4 medium to large tomatoes into inch size pieces. 

Start by scrambling 5 eggs in a large pan. Remove when almost cooked through. Turn the pan on high and add the marinated beef. Also remove when almost cooked through. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the chopped tomatoes, the diced scallion whites, a small spoonful of turbinado sugar, and some soy sauce. Let cook for 5-10 minutes until the tomatoes melt into a sauce. Add the beef and egg back into the pan letting everything simmer for another 5 minutes or so. Remove from pan and garnish with scallion greens.

HOW TO (Chicken):

Marinate diced chicken in a mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, turbinado sugar, salt, a bit of cornstarch (see a pattern?). Roughly chop 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, thinly slice 3 or 4 scallions on a long diagonal, setting aside the green parts, and prepare 3 or 4 slices of ginger. Also slice 2 carrots, blanched green beans, and a small red pepper into similar size strips.

On medium heat, start by frying the garlic, ginger, and scallion whites in a little oil until fragrant. Add some hot chili paste, turn up the heat and stir fry the chicken until cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan, add the carrots, green beans, and red pepper. Stir fry slightly until just cooked. Add the chicken back in along with a slurry of corn starch, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, sugar, and brown rice vinegar. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Garnish with scallion greens.