jalapeno beef stirfry

last nite in new york city's chinatown, i had a surprisingly tasty last minute meal at nice green bo shanghainese restaurant on bayardad street. as benji ordered beef with jalapenos, i thought to myself, whoa. that's gonna be super spicy. i couldn't imagine eating strips of jalapenos without reaching for a glass of cooling milk or even horchata. but when the dish did come out, it was a tasty, savory stirfry of tender strips of beef and sliced jalapenos that really weren't that hot. it was actually more akin to green bell peppers with a slight kick. and it was good. so good, that i recreated it tonite for dinner. so here we go.

i picked up a pound or so of skirt steak at the market after work, along with some jalapenos, an onion and garlic.


i then prepped the ingredients, deseeding, deveining and slicing the jalapenos, slicing the onion and thinly slicing the garlic cloves. i cut the skirt steak into thin strips as well.

i then marinated the beef with some oyster sauce, mushroom flavored dark soy sauce, a bit of sesame oil and freshly ground black pepper. i also decided to throw in a couple splashes of sake and mirin, in honor of all the great japanese food i've had lately.

in went the garlic into hot olive oil...

and the marinated beef, stirfried quickly for about 3-4 min.

i removed the beef from the pan and threw in the jalapenos and onions, stirfrying them for another 3-4 min...

until there was a bit of caramelization going on in the pan. i then tossed the reserved beef and sauce back in and...

plated! yum looking huh?

compared to nice green bo's version, mine was less salty but more oily. the beef was more tender than ngb's, probably because i used skirt steak instead of top round, which has more fat and is more tender.

i was really surprised by this dish. jalapenos cooked in this manner really aren't that hot and have a nice crunch and plenty of fiber. i wonder what other non-typical ingredients i can stir fry. that'll be a future post.