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Caramel Stir-Fried Beef and Green Peppers

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Makes 4 servings 1x

Time 30 minutes

Units Scale

Ingredients

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

Instructions

  1. Put the beef in the freezer while you prepare the vegetables and sauce. 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. Trim, peel, and thinly slice the shallots. Peel the ginger and trim the chile; chop them together. Trim and core the bell peppers and slice them lengthwise into strips.
  2. When the sugar melts and darkens slightly, remove it 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 OK if some of the caramel seizes up; scrape any hard bits into the liquid where they will dissolve as you cook.
  3. Add the shallots, ginger, bell peppers, and chiles to the sauce. Cook, stirring occasionally until the vegetables begin to soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the beef from the freezer and slice it across the grain as thinly as you can.
  4. Add the steak to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally until it’s still a little pink at the center (or more well done if you like) and the caramel sauce thickens and coats the beef and vegetables, about 3 minutes. Chop several sprigs of cilantro (reserve the rest for another use). Cut the lime into wedges.
  5. Taste the caramel and adjust the seasoning, adding more fish sauce if you’d like. Garnish with the cilantro and serve with the lime wedges.

— Recipe from How to Cook Everything Fast, Completely Revised 2nd Edition

Recipe variations

Soy Caramel Stir-Fried Beef and Green Peppers. Substitute soy sauce for the fish sauce.

Caramel Stir-Fried Beef and Green Beans. Instead of the peppers, substitute green beans (or any fresh edible-pod bean). After trimming the ends, leave them whole or cut thin into bite-size pieces.

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 of butternut squash and cut it into bite-size 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. While that’s cooking, chop 1 cup roasted peanuts with 1 or 2 fresh chopped red chiles (like Thai or Serrano). Toss them with the chopped cilantro and use that for garnish.