A Little Stir-Fry

We often cook a lot of things up in quantity and then freeze them to pull out at a later time. We had some brisket that we smoked and froze awhile ago and it just made its way into our culinary rotation. What was I going to do with all this brisket. HMMMMM?????? I turned it into an Asian stir-fry with a teriyaki sauce and vegetables that I served over some leftover pasta with some fried potsitckers on the side. Because my dish was a beef dish, I served it with a smooth red blend as my wine choice.

You would think with a name like teriyaki that this sauce originated in Japan. You would only be partially correct though. It can trace its origins to the Japanese shoyu sauce, but teriyaki sauce is actually an American creation, born in Hawai’i, around the early 1960’s, when large amounts of Japanese immigrants were settling into the islands. Teriyaki sauce is a unique marinade that was created using local products such as pineapple juice and brown sugar that were blended together in soy sauce. Today, teriyaki is widely recognized the world over, and is now more or less a way of cooking rather than just a very popular sauce.

Teriyaki Beef and Vegetable Stir-Fry

Stir-fries are as versatile as they come, and you can use any combination of meats, seafoods and vegetables you like. This time I used some red and yellow bell peppers, green beans, mushrooms, green onions, red onions, ginger, garlic and cilantro with my beef brisket.

I started off with what I had left of my store bought teriyaki sauce, then I added to it to make it even better.

1/3 cup teriyaki sauce

1 tsp Chinese 5-Spices

1 TBSP soy sauce

1 heaping TBSP cornstarch

Combine it all together and mix well.

My meat was already cooked, so I just sliced into thin strips and set it aside.

Slice the vegetables and saute together with the garlic and ginger until they are tender. Then add the beef and mix together well.

Add the meat and mix everything together thoroughly, then add the sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook for about 10 minutes, or until the sauce thickens a bit. It is now ready to serve over either pasta or rice and enjoy.

Enjoy or otherwise stated, Eigo o tanoshimu.

Stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.