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This dish is spicy, but you can easily control how much so.
You could cook it in a wok, but a cast-iron skillet works perfectly.

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Spicy Coconut Beef and Vegetables is a quick, interesting, delicious entree.

You could whip this up after work comfortably.

Searching for this recipe is what led me to Kevin Is Cooking, a site I now frequent. It’s a great recipe! Kevin uses a wok. I like to make this dish with my very best friend, a 12-inch, cast-iron skillet, so I’ve modified the recipe to do that, and to produce medium-rare beef. If you’re handy with a wok, though, Check out Kevin’s blog. You might think the amount of chili paste called for is outrageous, but try adding it in small increments, tasting as you go along. Surprisingly, you’ll find that under ¼-cup, it’s hardly worth doing. It’s right around the 4-5 Tbs mark that things start to get interesting. I like it at 6 Tbs, but I can imagine many people liking it at as much as eight.

Serves 4 extra-generously. With substantial sides, readily serves 6. 

What You’ll Need:

1 can of coconut milk
¾ cup chunky peanut butter
6 Tbs Sambal Oelek (or sriracha)
1 Tbs minced ginger
2 Tbs soy sauce
1½ lbs. beef top round, cut into thin strips against the grain
6 celery stalks
3 large carrots
Oil for the pan (optional)
¼ cup beef broth
Cilantro for garnish
Rice, for serving (optional)

How To Do It:

1. Blend or whisk milk, PB, and chili.
2. Ziplock ginger, soy, and beef. Shake, and then marinate 15 min, turning occasionally.
3. Meanwhile, peel veggies and cut on a diagonal.
4. Heat skillet over highest heat until fucking hot. I mean it. It should smoke, and then you should wait as long as you can stand it. For me, this takes about five minutes with my flame very near max. Then, unless your skillet is twelve inches or more – and you know it’s not … who are you kidding – toss in (a Tbs of oil and) about a third of the beef, giving each piece lots of room, and sear it. If your pan is as hot as it should be, this should take no more than a minute. Flip the pieces fairly quickly, and continue to sizzle them for no more than 30 seconds. Remove the beef from the pan while it still has a bit of pink. Repeat with remaining beef, in two more batches. Tent the resting beef, perhaps in a slightly warmed oven to keep it warm without cooking it further.

5. Deglaze the pan with broth. Add vegetables and cook just until shy of al dente.
6. Add coconut mixture; and simmer 5 min.
7. If you like a lot of sauce, add the beef to the pan. If you like less sauce, add as much of the sauce as you like to the beef and store the rest. Garnish with cilantro (and serve with rice).

Notes:

• If you make the sauce in a blender, you’ll liquify most if not all of the peanuts. If you whisk it, you’ll get peanut crunchiness in the final dish. It’s a matter of taste. You might even decide to blend some of the PB, and whisk in the rest.
• Trim away any major pieces of fat or connective tissue as you’re slicing the beef, if necessary.
• If you overcrowd the pan with too much beef, you’ll wind up steaming the beef rather than searing it.
• Whether or not you use oil depends on how confident you are in your cast iron’s seasoning. Even with a well seasoned pan, you’re going to get some stickage – and some is OK.
• Lefover sauce goes great with rice, or can be used as an bud-popping condiment for a hamburger.
• Use brown rice, because white rice is so racist.
  

Want to fit Spicy Coconut Beef and Vegetables into an interesting menu? Follow this link.

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Credit for all images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Hover over images and/or green text for pop-up info. Click for joy.

This content was not solicited, nor written in exchange for anything.

Inspired by Kevin Is Cooking.

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