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| Ingredients for Spicy Persimmon & Ginger Beef Stir-Fry |
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| Searing the beef |
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| Colorful, mildly sweet and spicy beef
Most of you know that I have been making jam for a little
while now. This is something I learned
from my awesome sister-in-law, Jeanne while visiting her up in Northern
California. After getting down the
basics, I decided to try making jam with uncommon fruits. Uncommon to jam-making , that is. Since my mother loves persimmons I chose
that to be my first step in canning outside of the box.
I have gone beyond persimmons since then and I’ll share my adventures
in future posts. This Spicy Persimmon
& Ginger Beef Stir Fry is one of the first recipes my son, Toby, and I have
collaborated on. Most of the ingredients
as well as the technique are basic, but the addition of chile pepper flakes and
persimmon jam gives this dish an updated exciting taste.
Spicy Persimmon &
Ginger Beef Stir Fry
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ginger, mince
½ teaspoon chile pepper flakes,
or more to taste
2 lbs London broil or other lean cut of beef
3 medium carrots peeled, sliced diagonally
½ cup rice wine
1 leek, white and light green parts sliced ¼” horizontally
1 cup sliced green onions
8 tablespoons Hummingbird Hill Persimmon Jam
On high heat sauteé garlic, ginger and chile pepper flakes
until fragrant. Add beef and let cook
until just a little bit pink. Allow
juices to evaporate, or remove with a spoon, leaving no more than 1 tablespoon. Add carrots and 1 ½ tablespoons rice
wine. Stir fry until all the liquid has
been absorbed. Add leeks and
scallions. Add more rice wine if meat
and vegetables begin sticking to pan.
Add 8 tablespoons Hummingbird Hill Persimmon Jam and stir to coat beef
slices. Cook another 3 minutes. Remove from heat and serve immediately.
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I used a cut of beef called London Broil because it is lean
and uniform in size but any other lean cut will work. Placing the beef in the freezer for about 30
minutes prior to slicing and using a very sharp knife aids in achieving thin
slices. The essence of stir frying is to
cook food very quickly over high heat.
Thus it is imperative to have all the ingredients ready and prepped
beforehand, and have them lined up close to the wok. As soon as the wok is very hot, pour a thin
line of room temperature oil down the side of the wok. Sautéeing the dry aromatic ingredients like
garlic, ginger and chile pepper flakes first infuses the oil which will later
flavor the meat. Toby, in his artistic
and perhaps Le Cordon Bleu-trained way laid the beef slices one by one flat
against the wall of wok to sear them.
Chinese cooks would probably toss the whole lot into the wok! When Toby saw that there seemed to be a lot
of juice from the beef accumulating at the bottom of the wok, he removed most
of it to prevent the meat from steaming.
We want them seared after all!
You will notice that my carrots are crinkly. I use a crinkle cutter to add dimension and
texture to my vegetables. The crevices
are also a good place for the yummy sauce to cling to. Although this is a stir-fry, liquid is added
to prevent the ingredients from sticking to the wok. Rather than using water, I use alcohol or
broth to add flavor. And finally, the
jam is added last to prevent it from caramelizing too much and burning in the
hot wok.
None of the flavors overpowered each other; everything came
together well. The persimmon jam’s
sweetness is the first to hit your taste buds, followed by rich beefy flavor
tempered by the sweet leeks, and then you get little (or a lot!) explosions
from the chile pepper flakes. You calm your
mouth down with steamed white rice, and then it craves more of that scrumptious
flavor, and the cycle starts all over again.
Stay tuned to more recipes using our extraordinary
jams.
What would you use Hummingbird Hill Persimmon Jam for?
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