Mmmmm….beef with snow peas. Where’s smell-a-vision when you need it? I can still smell the heavenly aroma wafting through my kitchen. How do I describe this dish and do it justice? I can’t, but I’ll try. How about tender, thin-sliced flank steak marinated in soy, sherry, brown sugar and ginger seared over high heat with snow peas and scallions, creating its own sweet and spicy, gooey soy and ginger sauce? Or even better – let’s call it heaven on a plate. If you love Chinese food like I love Chinese food, you MUST add this recipe to your collection immediately. And if you love ginger like I love ginger, you may just want to run to your kitchen and make this dish right now. It’s that good. Pinkie swear.
Here’s what I did right:
1. I read the recipe in advance so I was prepared
2. I bought a beautiful piece of flank steak
3. I picked out a superb hand of fresh ginger
4. I made a perfect batch of toasted Texmati basmati rice (such good stuff)
5. I added a little garlic with the ginger, and a little water to make more sauce
Here’s what I did wrong:
Nothing. I followed the directions (except for #5 above). I was a good girl, for the most part, which was not easy for me. I love to mess with recipes!
Be warned: this dish has a very strong flavor of fresh ginger. If you’re adverse, or you like it in small doses, cut the ginger back to 1/2 to 1 teaspoon and add a clove or two of garlic to compensate. It’s also a pretty dry final dish, since the marinade carmelizes on the beef. I like my Chinese dishes with sauce so I can spoon it over my rice, so I added about 1/4 cup of water at the end and stirred it to thicken into a lovely sauce. It was perfect. Another word of caution: please don’t overcook the meat. It’s sliced thin and cooks within seconds, so please, please if you love me, don’t cook this too long and ruin your beautiful flank steak. Remember: quick stir-fry = tender, wonderful beef.
As is my custom, I’m not going to print the recipe here. I could never do justice to the original recipe, the funny stories, or the gorgeous step-by-step photographs of Ree Drummond over at The Pioneer Woman. She is the queen, and why listen to the jester when you can get it straight from the queen? So, is your mouth watering yet? Are you ready to jump in and try this? Good. Then click on the link and be transported to heaven. Go on…you know you want to.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/10/beef-with-snow-peas/
Inside NanaBread's Head 
Happy to hear her recipe turned out good for you. I think your picture is beautiful :o)
I don’t think I’m going to win any food styling awards with shots like this. This dish smelled so good, I couldn’t be bothered with lighting and background. I barely fired off a few shots as it was. I was too focused on the “tasting” aspect of this review, if you know what I mean.
I love the queen and her cooking section, but I have yet to make a recipe and have it turn out (granted, I’ve only made two of her dishes). I stick to the recipes, so I’m not sure what is going on.
I think I will try this one before I turn my back on the queen’s recipes.
I can smell the deliciousness from here ;)
I think it’s a matter of tweaking them to fit your personal taste. Example: I made her Marlboro Man sandwiches (similar to a Philly cheesesteak). Meh. I didn’t care for the texture of the tenderized cube steak, and the recipe called for 1/2 a cup of Worchestershire sauce. Should have seen that one coming. I’m not a fan of Worchestershire, and I only like cube steak as chicken fried steak. But I thought the Hubs would like it, so I gave it a try and followed the recipe to a “T” when I should have followed my instincts. If you don’t like a particular ingredient, you’re not going to like it in ANYONE’S recipe. That’s why I gave the suggestion about the amount of ginger in this beef with snow peas. I love ginger, but my mother does not. I could eat this dish every week, but my mother wouldn’t even be able to stand the smell of it. I say keep trying. Have you attempted PW’s Tequila-Lime Chicken with all the Fixins yet? I wrote a review on that one, too. You never know when you’ll find a gem. If you want to try a new site, check out my blogger friend Lacey at http://www.asweetpeachef.com. She knows her stuff. Her panko crusted tilapia is my new favorite fish dish.
Yeah…I usually tweak to fit my tastes, but perhaps I need to tweak more with her stuff. I definitely don’t dig the ginger.
I haven’t tried the chicken yet, but it looks scrumptious!
Thanks for the other site. I’m always on the lookout for great recipes.
Food gawker.com usually has pretty good stuff, but it can be hit or miss since the recipes come from all over the internet. I tend to read the reviews to see how other people tweaked things to suit their tastes. That helps.
Luckily I have some very honest and very hungry taste testers :)
I have another suggestion. These two recipe sites are awesome. They are a collection of food photos, and when you click on a photo it links you to the blogger that posted it. You get the recipe directly from their blogs. I’ve really enjoyed browsing through the gorgeous photos, and have bookmarked many to try. Check them out, and let me know what you think. They are: Dishfolio.com and TasteSpotting.com
That dish is one of our new favorites at our house! It’s one of the few recipes that I don’t change everything about it after I make it the first time. I try to be good the first time and follow directions. I completely agree with your comments to Mads about following your gut with a recipe–if you don’t like a few of ingredients, you won’t like the dish. Well said.
What can I say….some people love the ginger, and some people love the maryann.