THAI STIR FRIED BEEF... WITH A TWIST... 

So its been a very busy 2 weeks with me moving house and settling in; tears, excitement, anxiety, frustration all rolled up into one tight little ball. Finally got settled in 2 days ago and after over a week of eating out i was determined to eat my own food, found this recipe and decided to jazz it up a bit.

1Kg Thinly Sliced Beef

1/4 Cup Soy Sauce

2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil

200ml Smoky Barbecue Sauce

1/4 Cup Chopped Red and Green Chilies

1 Tablespoon Chopped Basil

1 Chopped Spring Onion (Leaf and Bulb Separated)

Dried Chili Flakes

Since this is a Thai recipe it goes perfectly with jasmine rice, a very light fragrant rice that you can get in the stores or even in the market. It doesn't however, follow the traditional rice cooking method. Try it and you'll end up with a sticky goop.

Season your meat to your taste and set aside. My seasoning is simple salt, pepper, garlic, ginger and a little onion powder. 

Pour your jasmine rice in a bowl and cover with cold water for about 15 minutes and set aside. On the stove pour salt and about 4 cups water and bring to a boil. When it starts boiling, rinse your rice, transfer into the pot, turn down the heat and allow to simmer for another 15 minutes with the pot UNCOVERED.

Now put your wok or pot or suatee pan on the stove and allow to get really hot. Add oil and toss in meat. Do not stir around too much or your meat will start to seat and let out its juices instead of fry. If this happens no matter how hard you try, just pour the juice into a bowl (to be re-incorporated into the sauce later) and add a little more oil.

Fry beef for about 3 minutes then add peppers and spring onion bulb. Cook for another minute and add soy sauce and barbecue sauce the turn down the heat. 

Allow to cook for about 5 minutes, if it is getting too thick, add a little bit of water.

While that is going on, take the rice off. run cold water into it, rinse it, drain it and put it back on low heat and put a lid on it for another 5 minutes to steam and soften properly.

Add basil to stir fry, stir and allow to cook for another 30 seconds until fragrant.

Serve up with rice, garnishing with dried chili flakes and chopped spring onion leaf.

(The bbq sauce is my twist, it adds an earthiness and sweetness to this spicy dish and caramelizes the meat a touch.)

This is one of those dishes that taste even better the morning after.

Yum!
;)