Teriyaki Beef

stir fried beef

July 5th, 2011

I had some top rump beef, left over from a barbecue. It was cooked, but slightly pink in the middle, with a lovely smokey aroma. A good way of using up leftover meat is to marinade it and then warm it up with stir fried vegetables. The beef was actually quite tender, so the marinade was just a way of flavouring and adding variety to mealtime.

Teriyaki Beef stir-fry recipe:

For the marinade:
1 lb leftover beef or pork
a sprinkle of crushed chilli
Teriyaki sauce
Soy sauce

For the stir fry:
2 or 3 mushrooms sliced
a handful of bean sprouts
sliced carrots
shredded pak choi
(you could also use sliced courgettes and peppers)
Soy sauce
crushed chilli
grated ginger
6 pieces of chopped garlic
a drizzle of groundnut oil

beef in teriyaki

I sliced the leftover beef and put it into a container with a 50/50 mixture of soy sauce and teriyaki, plus a sprinkle of crushed chilli. You don’t have to immerse the meat, but do make sure it has been well coated in the marinade. If I was doing pork, I might use neat teriyaki, but with beef I find it a bit too sweet. Cover the marinade and put it in the fridge for a few hours (or overnight). Agitate the container a bit, from time to time if possible, to make sure all the meat has had good contact with the marinade.

grated ginger

When the meat was suitably marinated, I took it out of the fridge and allowed it to warm up to room temperature (for about an hour). I grated a finger of ginger

chopped garlic

and chopped up 6 pieces of garlic. You can use different vegetables to me and if you are feeling really lazy, you can buy a packet of pre prepared stir-fry vegetables and bean sprouts in the supermarket.

stir fried vegetables

My meat was already cooked, so all I had to do was cook the vegetables and warm the meat through. Stir frying is quite quick, the idea is to cook the vegetables so that they are crispy, therefore, if you have raw meat, cook it first and then do the vegetables.

crushed chilli

Heat your wok until it smokes, before drizzling in some groundnut oil (a fairly neutral tasting oil with a high smoking point). Throw in some grated ginger, garlic and a pinch of crushed chilli, followed by the chopped vegetables. The idea is to quickly sear the vegetables, in order to cook the outside whilst leaving the inside crunchy. Add a splash or two of soy sauce for flavouring and do taste to make sure the seasoning is right. Pay special attention to the bean sprouts, to make sure they are cooked and not raw. When I was happy that the vegetables were suitably cooked, flavoured and crunchy, I moved them up the sides of the wok, whilst warming the beef on both sides in the bottom of the pan (see top photo). You can add some of your marinade, but all of it might be too much.

sauce reduction

When the beef was heated through, I reduced the sauce in the bottom of the pan to thicken it slightly.