The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Skirt of beef stir fry

Sometimes we need a hefty meat fix. For years it was steak every Friday night, then it was an occasional steak when we found them on sale. Now it will be skirt of beef. Not only is it economical at about £3.50 for 500g it’s tastier than steak and has a wonderful texture.

In the UK skirt is generally a largely undiscovered cut of beef.  So thank you Jo and more recently Paula for pointing me in the direction of the broad range of ways to cook this superb cut. Having already made a skirt of beef casserole in the slow cooker I thought that I’d experiment with a stir fry.

Once I had chopped everything, sliced the beef and created my sauce it took just four minutes to cook. Perfect for those evening when I don’t want to spend hours attached to the cooker but want to eat a meal packed with flavour.

Stir fry with skirt of beef, green pepper and spring onion (for 2 greedy people)

Ingredients:
250g of skirt of beef sliced as fine as you can across the grain
1 green bell pepper
1 small bunch of spring onions
1 medium mushroom
2 tsp of soy sauce
Half a tsp of garlic granules
Half a tsp of balsamic vinegar
Half a tsp of sugar
1 tsp of cornflour
3 tbsp of dry white wine
Half a tsp of honey
Half a tsp of ground ginger
3 tbsp of oyster sauce
Noodles for two cooked in water with a tsp of vegetable stock powder

In the wok:
2 tbsp of white wine and 2 tbsp of olive oil

Method:

In a bowl make a paste with the cornflour and a little of the white wine and gradually add the rest of the wine, soy sauce, garlic granules, balsamic vinegar, sugar, honey, ground ginger and oyster sauce. Add the sliced beef. Stir well and set aside while you prepare your noodles and vegetables.
Follow the manufacturers instructions for cooking your noodles adding a teaspoon of vegetable stock powder to the water.
Deseed and chop the bell pepper. Slice the spring onions diagonally. Peel the mushroom and slice fine.
Add the oil and the wine to the wok and heat until it is bubbling. Add the vegetables and cook over a high heat for two minutes. Then add the beef and the sauce cook for a further two to three minutes stirring all the time. Put the drained noodles on warm plates and top with the beef stir fry.