Firecracker Beef

Pete-L's Note:

This delicious spicy beef over a light rice noodle salad explodes with flavor, and is all about contrasting tastes and textures. Very easy to prepare and quite healthy, try making firecracker beef and noodle salad at home.

• Total Time: 20 mins
• Prep Time: 0 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 1

• 8 ounces noodles
• beef
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons chili-garlic sauce (you'll find that in the Asian section)
• ½ teaspoon , 5-spice
• ½ teaspoon ginger puree or ½ teaspoon grated ginger
• 3 cloves of roughly chopped garlic or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• black pepper
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Marinate the Firecracker Beef.
2. We're going to mix that very well and refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Prepare the Rice Noodle Salad.
4. Now, on to the rice noodles. We're going to serve the spicy beef on cold rice noodle salad. So I have 8 oz of rice noodles, those are the thin ones. We're going to boil those for 4 minutes, they cook fast, and then we're going to rinse them in very cold water and drain them very well. We don't want a wet salad.
5. Add 2 tsp of fish sauce, which is a fermented condiment, kind of like soy sauce. We're going to add 2 tbsp of vegetable oil, we're going to add 2 tbsp of rice vinegar, 1/3 cup of shredded carrot. Mix it up and refrigerate until needed.
6. Sear the Spicy Beef.
7. Alright, in a very hot preheated dry pan, we're going to sear the beef for 2 minutes per side. We want it rare, but we want it kind of caramelized on the outside. You're going to let that cool to room temperature.
8. Toss the Salad.
9. And then we're going to finish the salad. We're going to add 2 more tbsp of rice vinegar, 1/4 cup of chopped peanuts, 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro, toss that together and our salad is ready as a base for this delicious firecracker beef.
10. Slice the Firecracker Beef.
11. To finish the beef we're going to slice it across the grain. It is so nice and rare and juicy and delicious. So we have the sliced beef and we also have the drippings to which we're going to add the beef back into later. Preheat the pan very well and we're going to sear those beef slices for just a minute or two, just to caramelize the outside and the inside is still going to be really juicy and delicious.
12. Serve the Spicy Firecracker Beef and Noodle Salad.
13. Go ahead and add the hot slices back to the drippings and you're going to top the cold, kind of tangy noodle salad with that hot, spicy firecracker beef, maybe a little sprinkle of peanuts. So amazingly delicious, and such a great contrast between the cold and the hot, and the sweet and the sour, and the spicy and the salty. It's just a great, great dish. I hope you give that a try. Enjoy.
14. Recipe from About.com.

Reviews

[firefly68]

I just found this recipe at http://chinesefood.about.com and was going to post it. It uses 3/4 lb of skirt steak, one of my favorite cuts of beef, and serves 3-4, not 1. I think it would also be great with chicken or even shrimp or tofu, and probably just as tasty over hot noodles. Can't wait to try it. Thanks for posting, Pete-L!