The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Skirt of beef stir fry with black bean sauce

It’s rare for us to eat out these days as it’s so expensive. But I try and cook something a bit special for Saturday night. When I visited The Carter Street Butcher I picked up a 600g piece of organic skirt of beef for four quid – far cheaper than the non organic butchers in Newmarket. I had a longing for water chestnuts and black bean sauce so I added them to my weekly shopping list and glided down to Newmarket in Danny’s car.

A lot of people had clearly spent the day decorating the outside of their houses with fairy lights and suddenly it felt quite Christmassy with the lights twinkling in the dark. I stocked up on cranberries – I’m going to try selling my cranberry and clementine sauce at the gate and searched for water chestnuts. It took me ages to find them but it had become a crusade – I just had to have them. Eventually I spotted them on a shelf near the black bean sauce and rushed back home.

I decided to simmer my noodles in beef stock. This worked well and made them taste a lot more ‘substantial’. The stir fry sauce was created with a little red wine, water and some black bean sauce. The flavour of the organic skirt was wonderful and the crunch of the water chestnuts was a great foil to the bamboo shoots and calabrese.  Tantalising deep flavours and so easy.

Beef stir fry with water chestnuts and black bean sauce recipe – for 2 greedy people

Ingredients:

250g of skirt of beef – sliced very fine and rolled in 2 teaspoons of corn flour
125g of chopped onion
200g of broccoli florets sliced fine
75g of water chestnuts
75g of bamboo shoots
2 tbsp of olive oil
4 tbsp of red wine
4 tbsp of black bean sauce
6 tbsp of water
Half a star anise
1 tsp of garlic granules
1 tsp of ground ginger
A pinch of cayenne pepper
Noodles for 2
500ml Beef stock or one beef stock cube in 500ml of boiling water
Method:

Cook the noodles in the stock, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Drain and set aside in a warm place.

Heat the olive oil in the wok gently and add the chopped onions. Put on the lid and let the onion sweat for about five minutes.

Add the wine and water to the wok and let the onion simmer (lid off for a further) 5 minutes and then add the calabrese, the star anise, garlic, cayenne and ground ginger. When the broccoli is nearly ready and still has some bite add the black bean sauce and whap up the heat. When everything is bubbling well toss in the water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and the beef. Keep stirring for two or three minutes to cook the meat and thicken the sauce. Pour over the noodles and serve.