Friday, March 2, 2018

Flank Steak and Broccoli Stir Fry

[FTC Disclaimer]  We are proud to be sponsored by Certified Angus Beef® Brand; however, this is not a sponsored post. I am personal friends with Chad Romzek, the owner of Kick Ash Baskets.  I have no affiliation with the Ceramic Grill Store, the source of the wok and spider rig.  I am a student at Rouxbe Online Culinary School, but I am not an affiliate partner and receive no benefits from them. I have no affiliation with Thermoworks.

I've been trying to eat a bit more heart healthy and stir-frying is an excellent technique for doing that without sacrificing flavor.  Earlier this week we made this Flank Steak and Broccoli Stir Fry on one of our kamado grills.


Recipe for flank steak and broccoli stir fry on a kamado grill

Advantages of Stir-Frying

Stir-frying offers several benefits, even more so for stir-frying on a kamado style grill. 
  • Stir-frying is low-fat because it utilizes leaner cuts of meat, such as flank steak, shrimp, flat iron steak, chicken breast, and skirt steak.
  • Stir-frying is a balanced diet meal because it encourages the use of more vegetables, especially fresh seasonal ingredients.
  • Stir-frying's high heat cooking retains more color and nutrients of the vegetables.
  • Stir-frying is economical because it extends smaller portions of meat with more veggies.
  • Stir-frying helps clean out some of those leftover ingredients in your fridge.
Stir-frying over the intense heat of a kamado style grill (Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, etc.) offers an advantage over stir-frying inside.  According to Rouxbe Online Culinary School, heat is one of the most essential elements of stir-frying.  Most home stovetop ranges are only rated at 15,000 but while a commercial wok burning can draw as much as 200,000 but.  A rocket hot kamado grill can out produce your stovetop any day of the week. 

That said, you can cook this inside.  Just use the hottest burner that your range top has.


How to stir fry on a kamado grill such as Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, or Primo.


Flank Steak Broccoli Stir Fry 

Ingredients



  • 1/2 pound Certified Angus Beef® Brand flank steak
  • 1 cup broccoli florets, parboiled for 3 minutes
  • 3/4 cup carrots, peeled, sliced and parboiled for 3 minutes
  • 3/4 cup green bell pepper, cut into 3/4" pieces
  • 3/4 cup sweet onion, peeled and cut into wedges
  • 2-3 tablespoons peanut oil
  • 1 cup sweet jasmine rice
  • 1 green onion, julienned 
  • sesame seeds

For the Asian Steak Seasoning

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon Vietnamese salt with chile (Muôi Ót)  See Notes/Substitutions
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic
  • 1/8 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice

For the Stir Fry Sauce

  • 1/4 cup hoisin
  • 1/4 cup sweet soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
  • 1 tablespoon sriracha sauce
  • 1/4 cup beef stock
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
Instructions

  1. Make the sauce ahead of time.  Mix ingredients together in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer until thickened, 5 to 10 minutes.  Keep refrigerated until ready to use.
  2. An hour before you plan to grill, mix the Asian Steak Seasoning ingredients together and season both sides of the steak.  Allow the steak to rest at room temperature for a full hour.
  3. Cook the sweet jasmine rice according to directions.
  4. Preheat your grill to scorching heat.  You really can't get it too hot for wokking.
  5. Grill the steak for 3 minutes per side.  Remove from heat and allow to rest on a cooling rack. After a 5 minute rest, thinly slice steak against the grain.
  6. Place wok on the grill and preheat for 5 minutes.  Add oil and wait until it is ready.  This should take less than a minute, but you will know when it begins to shimmer, ripple, and smoke.  
  7. Add the carrot, onion, and bell pepper to the wok.  Stir fry this until it begins to turn tender, 2-3 minutes.  Add the broccoli and stir-fry for another minute.  
  8. Add 1/3 cup of the sauce and stir-fry for another minute.
  9. Remove the wok from heat and immediately fold in the strips of flank steak.  Stir-fry for 1 minute off of heat.  The hot wok and veggies will heat the steak back up.
  10. Serve the stir-fry over the jasmine rice and garnish with green onion and sesame seeds.  Serve the remaining stir-fry sauce on the side with more sriracha sauce.



Notes/Substitutions

Certified Angus Beef Brand is the Best Angus Beef because it has to meet 10 quality standards.
So you probably aren't going to find a flank steak weighing in at a half pound.  Justin, the Butcher at our Food City, often sells them cut in half lengthwise.  Look for flank steak with a bright red color and not too much exterior flat.  Or just look for the Certified Angus Beef® Brand label.  A lot of stores sell "premium Angus" or "black Angus" now, but only 3 in 10 Angus meet the Certified Angus Beef® Brands 10 Quality Standards.

I stumbled on Vietnamese Salt and Chili at a local Asian supermarket.  The stuff is phenomenal, I would describe it as a cross between coarse salt and Sriracha sauce.  It rocks on beef, chicken, and shrimp.

In a pinch, you could doctor sea salt with cayenne pepper.  I'm going to try making my own by mixing a cup of coarse sea salt and sriracha, then dehydrating it for 12 hours. 



How to stir fry on a Big Green Egg kamado grill.
Stir-fry goes by faster than a spark in the night, so it is vital to have everything ready to wok and roll before you start.  You won't have 60 seconds to run back to the kitchen.

This includes equipment, such as; a wok, wok untensils, wok stand, TimeStick Trio, and Thermapen.

Your stir-fry sauce should be thick and syrupy.  Anytime that I stir fry, I have a slurry of cornstarch and cold water on standby for a thickening agent at the end of the cook, but I usually don't need it.

So why not just slice the steak and cook it in the wok?  You can do that, but it tends to cook the beef through more than I like.  Flank steak can get tough quickly.  So I prefer to cook it whole.

This is a good recipe idea for using flank steak.
Letting the steak rest on a cooling rack keeps from trapping heat between the steak and cutting board. 

Stir frying veggies in a wok over hot lump charcoal in a kamado style grill.
Stir-frying over live coals is an excellent way to get the heat you need.  Most home range tops can't generate the intense heat required for proper wok cooking, but a hot kamado can fire it up where you need to be.


My set up for woking on a kamado grill is simple.  I use a spider rig with the legs facing downwards as a wok stand and just put my two handled, 16-inch carbon steel wok in that.  I use a Kick Ash Basket full of natural hardwood lump and run it hot and fast for the whole cook. 

See those crispy edges of the slices? That's flavor, and you aren't likely to get that in a wok.


Tossing the sliced steak with the hot veggies in the wok just as soon as it comes off of the grill will provide just enough heat to warm the steak through.


Ways to stir fry on a kamado grill, such as; Kamado Joe, Big Green Egg
The black specks?  Those are black sesame seeds.  

This is why I cook the flank steak separately.  The steak stays tender but has the great flavor of the grill.

Here is another idea for stir-fried beef - Beef and Garden Vegetable Stir Fry.