Beef Stir Fry with Thai Noodles

This is my own version of a beef stir fry as the umpteen sites i browsed for a recipe had major complicated stuff and ingredients i didn't have, so here's my version. Since its my version, its obviously an easy lazy one:)

Lean beef- 400 gms, cleaned and diced lengthwise

Shallots- 4, sliced lengthwise

Green chillies- 2, slit lengthwise

Red/green/yellow/orange pepper (Capsicum)- 1, cut lengthwise

Spring onion- 1 big, cut in circles

Cornflour- 2 tbs

Soy sauce- 5 tsp

Fish sauce- 1/2 tsp

Ginger paste- 1 tsp heaped

Garlic paste- 1 tsp heaped

Chilli pwd- 1/2 tsp

Maggi seasoning sauce- 1 tsp

Oil- enough to deep fry the beef slices

Salt- to taste

Coriander leaves- 1 tbs, finely chopped (optional)

Marinate the beef slices with 3 tsp soy sauce, chilli pwd, ginger and garlic paste and refrigerate for half an hour. Meanwhile have all your veggies cut and ready.

Take some water in a bowl and mix the 2 tbs of cornflour to form a thick gravy. Pour this into the beef marinade and mix well. The cornflour should coat the beef. In a deep bottomed pan, heat the oil and when its boiling hot, put in the beef slices and deep fry in batches. Once crisp and brown, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a kitchen towel.

In a frying pan, heat about 2 tbs of oil (leftover from frying) and sautee the onions and peppers. Once it becomes soft, add the green chillies, fish sauce, the remaining 1 tsp of soy sauce and the Maggi seasoning sauce. Mix well. At this stage you check the salt and spiciness and add more if required. Next, add the fried beef slices and mix well. On low fire, sautee the beef till they become a darker brown, mixed with all the masala. Just before you take it off the fire, throw in the spring onions and garnish with some coriander leaves if you fancy it.

Serve with noodles or fried rice. I made noodles with the Thai green curry paste. Stir fry mix is available with an assortment of veggies like bok choy, bamboo shoots, bell peppers etc. In a steaming hot wok, sautee the veggies with green curry paste and a generous dash of soy sauce. We get ready-made noodles which just needs to be put in at the last minute (yes, when i meant lazy i really meant LAZY). So add the noodles to the veggies, give it a final stir and you have steaming hot Thai Noodles.

Notes: The oil for frying needs to be really hot and so does the wok for the noodles.

Don't over fry the beef slices, because they can then become chewy. Trust me, i have been there, done that.