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Caramel Stir-Fried Beef and Green Beans

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Makes 4 servings 1x

Time 30 minutes

In How to Cook Everything Fast, recipe directions are separated into “prep” and “cook.” Here, we’ve made that distinction with italics for prep-work and plain text for cooking. This reflects the most efficient order and timing of tasks.

Units Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 pound boneless beef sirloin, flank, or rib-eye steak
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3 shallots
  • 1 inch fresh ginger, or more to taste
  • 1 fresh hot green or red chile (like Thai or serrano)
  • 1 pound green beans
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce, or more to taste
  • Pepper
  • Several sprigs fresh cilantro
  • 1 lime

Instructions

  1. Put the beef in the freezer.
  2. Put 1/2 cup sugar in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until the sugar becomes liquid and darkens slightly, 5 to 7 minutes. (Be sure to keep an eye on the skillet so the caramel doesn’t burn while you prep the vegetables.)
  3. Trim, peel, and thinly slice the shallots.
    Peel 1 inch ginger. Trim the chile; seed it if you like. Chop the ginger and chile together.
    Trim the green beans.
  4. As soon as the sugar begins to darken, remove the pan from the heat and carefully add 1 cup water and 1 tablespoon fish sauce. Stir in a big pinch of pepper and return the skillet to medium heat. It’s okay if some of the caramel seizes up; scrape any hard bits into the liquid, where they will dissolve as you cook.
  5. Add the shallots, ginger, chile, and green beans to the sauce. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.
  6. Remove the beef from the freezer and slice it against the grain as thinly as you can.
  7. Return the skillet to medium heat and add the steak. Cook, stirring occasionally, until it’s still a little pink at the center (or more well done if you like) and the caramel has thickened and coats the beef and green beans, about 3 minutes. Return the beans and aromatics to the skillet and toss to combine.
  8. Cut the tenderest stems from several cilantro sprigs but leave them whole.
    Cut the lime into wedges.
  9. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more fish sauce if you like. Serve with cilantro and lime wedges.

— Recipe from How to Cook Everything Fast

Recipe variations

Orange Caramel Stir-Fried Pork and Green Beans Substitute boneless pork loin or sirloin for the beef and orange juice for the fish sauce. When you taste and adjust the seasoning in Step 5, add salt or soy sauce to taste.

Soy Caramel Stir-Fried Beef and Peppers Substitute soy sauce for the fish sauce and green bell peppers for the green beans; after trimming, coring, and seeding, slice the peppers lengthwise into strips.

Caramel Stir-Fried Butternut Squash with Spicy Peanuts Totally meat free. Instead of the beef and green beans, trim, peel, and seed about 2 pounds butternut squash and cut it into bite-sized chunks. Add it to the skillet in Step 3 and cook, stirring once in a while, until you can easily pierce it with a fork, 5 to 10 minutes. While the squash is cooking, chop 1 cup roasted peanuts with 1 or 2 fresh red chiles (like Thai or serrano); chop the cilantro. Toss the peanuts, chiles, and cilantro together and use that for garnish.