For Dinner Tonight-Spicy Beef on Rice Noodles

Home cooks everywhere tell me their biggest challenge isn’t necessarily cooking.  Their biggest frustration is figuring out WHAT to cook for dinner.

My mission is to help you with simple dinner inspirations using basic cooking methods.  My Spicy Beef on Rice Noodles is an example of basic stir-fry or saute method that can be duplicated with chicken, pork, shrimp, or tofu if you don’t care for beef.

First, let’s get the rice noodles ready.  They’re very simple to prepare.  I bring water to a soft simmer, turn off the heat, and add the noodles to soak.

Broccoli doesn’t cook very well in a saute pan, so I’ll par-cook it to my desired doneness.

Basic Saute Method:

1)  PAN HOT FIRST! – Test the heat in the pan by sprinkling water from your fingertips.  If the water sizzles, you’re ready to cook.

2) Fat Hot – Add just enough fat (olive oil) to cover the bottom of the pan in a thin layer.  Heat the fat until it appears “ripply”.

3) Saute julienne of onion in the hot oil.  For stir fry, we want to cook at a very hot level.

4) Add protein product – Here’s where you add your beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, or what every you’d like.

In this instance, I’m using some leftover sliced steak.

5) Deglaze the pan with Soy Sauce – when you start to develop “fond”, the browned renderings on the bottom of the pan, you need to drop the temperature and release that fond.  Any cold liquid will do this, we’ll use soy sauce.  Then, we’ll add a spicy Szechuan sauce we bought at the store.

6) Add Beef Broth – Once the Soy Sauce and Szechuan Sauce have mostly evaporated, add beef broth to the pan.

7)  Return the cooked broccoli to the pan

Drain the rice noodles, top with beef and broccoli, ladle with some pan sauce.

This is a basic method.  How will you change it to suit your desires?