Recipe: Triple Pepper Steak

Triple Pepper Steak

Makes 4 servings

Triple Pepper Steak
Beef lovers, this one's for you: wok-seared slices of steak in a robust brown sauce with colorful bell peppers.

Marinade
2 tablespoons oyster-flavored sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 pound flank steak, thinly sliced
across the grain

Sauce
1/3 cup beef broth
2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 each green, red, and yellow
bell peppers, julienned
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved
in 2 teaspoons water
1/2 fresh jalapeño chili, sliced

Getting Ready
Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl. Add beef and stir to coat. Let stand for 10 minutes.

Combine sauce ingredients in a bowl.

Cooking
Place a wok over high heat until hot. Add 1-1/2 tablespoons oil, swirling to coat sides. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 10 seconds. Add beef and stir-fry until no longer pink, 1-1/2 to 2 minutes. Remove meat from pan.

Add remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil to wok, swirling to coat sides. Add bell peppers and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add water and stir-fry until peppers are tender-crisp, 2 to 3 minutes. Return meat to wok and add sauce; bring to a boil. Add cornstarch solution and cook, stirring, until sauce boils and thickens.

To serve, garnish with chili slices.

Pepper Prep

Cut off the top and bottom of the pepper. Next, make a single cut along the side, to open the pepper. Pull out and discard the central core of membranes and seeds. Now lay the pepper, skin side down, on a cutting board, spreading it out flat.

Holding a sharp knife or cleaver flat against the pepper, trim away any remaining membrane. You now have a long flat rectangle that's easy to slice crosswise.

Martin Yan's Feast:
The Best of Yan Can Cook
By Martin Yan
Bay Books, San Francisco
Hardback, $34.95
400 pages, 75 color photos
Publication date: October 1998
ISBN 0-912333-31-6
Recipe Reprinted by permission.