Korean Style Beef with Spicy Cabbage

[Sara Moulton]

Korean Style Beef with Spicy Cabbage

Serves 4 as Main Dish.

Hands-on time: 25 minutes

Total preparation time: 25 minutes

Skirt steak is one of those ingredients you would have to be very talented to mess up. It is a well-marbled (a butcher's way of saying significant fat runs through it), tough cut of meat that should be cooked rare to medium-rare and sliced thin across the grain. Skirt steak is the full-flavored cut of beef usually used for fajitas, and it takes very nicely to this Asian preparation. If you have time, make double the sauce and marinate the meat in half of it for an hour. I chose napa cabbage because it is more delicate than regular cabbage and provides the perfect crisp backdrop to the beef. Serve with Simple Boiled Rice (page 40).

• 3 T soy sauce
  
• 2 scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced (about 1/4 cup)
  
• 2 T rice vinegar
  
• 1 T dark brown sugar
  
• 2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger (use a Microplane)
  
• 1-1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
  
• 1 garlic clove, minced (about 1 teaspoon)
  
• 1 lb skirt steak
  
• Kosher salt and freshly milled black pepper
  
• 4 T vegetable oil
  
• 4 c thinly shredded napa cabbage (about 1 pound)
  
• 1/4 lb snow peas, halved diagonally
  
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
  

1. Whisk together the soy sauce, scallions, vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, sesame oil, and garlic and set aside. Season the steak with salt and black pepper on both sides. Cut into pieces if necessary, in order to fit all of it into the skillet.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over high heat until hot; add the meat. Sear the steak on both sides, 4 to 6 minutes total for medium-rare.

3. Transfer the meat to a platter, cover loosely with foil, and let rest while you cook the cabbage. Discard the fat in the skillet; heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in the same skillet over high heat until hot. Reduce the heat to medium and add the cabbae and snow peas. Saute for 3 minutes or until the cabbage is crisp tender. Add the snow peas, red pepper flakes and salt to taste; saute just until the peas are hot, about 30 seconds.

4. To serve, slice the steak thin, against the grain, at an angle. Add any juices from the platter to the soy sauce mixture and toss the meat with the sauce in a bowl. Arrange a mound of cabbage on four plates; top with the meat and sauce.

Excerpted from Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals, published by Broadway Books and reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2005 by Sara Moulton. Pages referenced in this recipe are from the book.

Keywords: Main Dish, Korean, Easy, Beef, Dinner

( RG1577 )