It's quite easy to buy frozen foods, processed junk in a box, and make your meal in 10 minutes or less for the family. I can't wait to see how lunches will fare at my future kids schools, but at least I know that at home I'm doing my job, I'm preparing healthy meals at home. It always starts at home, the parent is the number one teacher to a child. It's easy to make and prepare dishes from scratch at home, and I've been following this mantra as long as I've been cooking in my kitchen (my number is at 4+ years of experience of cooking). I picked this dish because it was a stir-fry, and I had a strange craving for one after he taught 1000 people a stir-fry recipe. This recipe is adaptable to your taste as well, you could probably substitute tofu or chicken for the protein, but the tender cuts of steak produce lots of flavor to the black bean sauce. This was an enjoyable and delicious dish because it was easy to prepare, and I felt great about enjoying a "proper" meal as Jaime would say. I love using a couple of ingredients to make a meal, it's a keeper in my kitchen!
Adapted from Jaime's Food Revolution - Video from Ministry of Food
Ingredients:
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup long-grain or basmati rice
1 1/4 pound top loin *I used flank steak*
a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 a fresh red chile, chopped finely
2 scallions, chopped
a small bunch of fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons sesame oil
peanut or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons of good-quality black bean sauce
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 limes
1 egg, preferably free-range or organic
Preparation:
1. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add the rice, 1 teaspoon salt and let it simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Trim any excess fat from your steak and slice the meat into finger-sized strips. Peel and finely slice the ginger and garlic. Finely slice the chile. Cut the ends off your scallions and finely slice. Pick the cilantro leaves and put to one side, and finely chop the cilantro stalks.
3. In a large bowl, put the ginger, garlic, chile, scallions, cilantro stalks, and steak strips. Add the sesame oil and mix everything together.
4. Preheat a wok or large frying pan on a high heat and once it's very, very hot add a good lug of peanut oil and swirl it around. Add all your chopped ingredients from the bowl. Give the pan a really good shake to mix everything around quickly.
5. Stir-fry for 2 minutes, taking care to keep everything moving so it doesn't burn. Add the black bean sauce, and stir in 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and the juice of half a lime. Taste and season with black pepper and a little more soy sauce.
6. Remove the pan from the heat, transfer everything to a bowl, and cover with aluminum foil. Give the pan a quick wipe with a ball of paper towels and put back on the heat. Add a lug of peanut oil and swirl it around. Crack in your egg and a tablespoon of soy sauce - the egg will cook very quickly, so keep stirring. Once it's scrambled, stir in your rice. Keep mixing for a few minutes, then taste and season with a little soy sauce.
7. Divide the rice between two bowls. Spoon over the meat and blac bean sauce and sprinkle over the cilantro leaves. Serve with wedges of lime!
Review: Awesome and very flavorful meal! I know Jaime states that it is best served with chilled rice, because the heat from the meat will heat the rice. I'm a purist that loves hot rice, so it works just the same that you use fresh made rice instead of cold rice. Also, he states to use packaged rice...it's a Food Revolution, got to make your own from scratch! If you care about making a change please make your pledge for Jaime's Food Revolution, too!
