Thai Lemon Beef

You’ll need:

1 boneless top round steak or flank steak

1/3 cup of soy sauce

1/4 cup of lemon juice

1/4 cup of water

3 teaspoons crushed red pepper (like the kind you get at pizza places—a few packets of the free stuff from Pizza Hut would work)

4 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

4 green onions

2 carrots

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 cup of rice


Heavy artillery:

Sharp knives

Measuring cups and spoons

Large bowl or Tupperware container

Big skillet or wok (nonstick)

Spatula

Garlic press, if you got it

Whisk (or a fork, the poor man’s whisk)

Medium sauce pan

Cutting board

Refrigerator

Stove

Time to do some pre-cutting:

Peel and mince the garlic (or press it)

Cut the green onions into 2” pieces

Peel the carrots and slice them as thinly as possible

Cut the steak diagonally (that is, at like a 60 degree angle to the floor) across the grain (usually means width-wise) into 1/8 in strips, then place it in your large bowl

Now to make the marinade:

Combine soy sauce, lemon juice, water, crushed red pepper, and garlic. Pour half of it over the steak, and keep the other half. Cover the steak and stick it in the fridge for at least half an hour. My theory is, the longer you marinate, the better, but you probably don’t have time to wait all day.

Rice is a separate issue:

You’re going to cook the rice according to the instructions on the package, which probably means boiling it in a specific amount of water for like half an hour or something. The tricky part is timing. You want to have the rice done at about the same time, or slightly before, the steak, which will take about ten minutes to finish once you are done marinating it. So start the rice an appropriate amount of time before you take the steak out of the fridge.

Ready to take the steak out and get this show on the road?:

Drain the steak and throw that marinade away (remember, you kept the other half of it). Put your big skillet or wok on the stove over medium-high heat, and heat 1/2 tablespoon of oil in it. Put half of the steak in the skillet and stir-fry it a minute or so, until it’s a color darker and browner than pink. Then take that steak out and start the process over again with new oil and the remaining steak, which you will then pull out.

Now put the green onions and carrots in the skillet and stir-fry them for three minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk (or fork) the cornstarch into the marinade that you saved. After the three minutes is up on the veggies, add this cornstarch marinade to the skillet and continue stir-frying until it gets thick.

Your rice should be done or almost done. Just making sure.

Finally, add all the steak to the skillet. Just keep stir-frying until everything is heated.

Great, you’re done. Put some rice on a plate and pour the steak over the top of it. As they say in Thailand, bon appetít!