Dinner At Chez Cavebear

A few months ago, I received an offer to subscribe to many magazines at $2 per year.  I know a come-on when I see it, but 3 of them were interesting and I had subscribed to them in the past.  Cooks Illustratated and Eating Well, and I forget the 3rd which hasn't arrived yet.

I'm no sucker.  I know they will beg me to renew the subscription in a year.  I won't.  But, as they desire to take advantage of me (hoping I will automatically renew) I will take advantage of them.  Both magazines are very good and have good recipes.  A year's worth of good recipes from 2 cooking magazines is nice.

In fact, they are good enough that I used all the subscription inserts as bookmarks.  Oddly, they equaled each other rather well.

One that interested me was beef with black bean garlic sauce and asparagus.  I didn't find that sauce in the store when I shopped but I found black beans and I found the basic recipe online.  OK, so it wasn't fermented black beans.  And I didn't use flank steak.  But I improvise.

I had New York Strip steak I cut into 2"x2"x6" pieces 1/4" thick because I like cutting the pieces against the grain.  I had the black beans (but not fermented).  I had garlic. I had canned jalepeno.  I immersion-blended the mix.  Close enough.  Then I made a cornstarch slurry of beef boullion paste, sherry, and soy sauce with some toasted sesame seed oil.

The wok cooked the beef nicely and I set it in a bowl.  Then wokked asparagus, red bell peppers, and scallions.  Just the too much "crunch".  Returned the beef and poured the cornstarch slurry in for a minute.    That made the veggies "crunch" right.  Had to add water because the slurry was too thick, but water never ruins the taste, just changes viscosity.

The result was very good!  Enough hot for me (I don't need much), enough beef (I like meat but not a LOT!) and the veggies came out perfectly.  With a nice tossed salad, a perfect meal.  Hurray to a magazine recipe (even if I didn't follow it exactly).

Next time, I will serve it over angel hair spaghetti or fettucini.  It needed a starch (I used a slice of bread).

A professional chef would have been horrified, I suppose.  Well, I'm not one, but I can turn out a decent dish most times.  The failures get tossed (there is a good reason to have premade meals in the freezer).  The good ones I eat and enjoy.  LOL!

Happing dining to all!