Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals #18: Rib-Eye Stir-Fry
This is our 18th cooking/blogging experiment from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. For this one we chose “Rib-Eye Stir-Fry, Dan Dan Noodles, and Chilled Hibiscus Tea.” We picked it because we had some bok choi already to use up, and we conveniently had this episode saved on our DVR. We went with the same strategy we’ve used for the past few weeks, where one of us cooks while the other is in charge of reading the recipe and photographing. The Snook was on chef duty for this one, and he managed it in a blistering 30:19! The meal name is a misnomer, as there’s not really any stir-frying involved. It’s basically a noodle soup served with greens, sliced steak, and lots of other accompaniments.

Substitutions: We used snow peas instead of sugar snap peas, and regular broccoli instead of sprouting broccoli. Our teabags were “rosehip and hibiscus” rather than just hibiscus. We also left out the mint in the tea, rather than buy a whole bunch just for a couple sprigs. Everything else was as-written!

Quick verdict: Tasty, but also a little messy! There are lots of components to this meal, and it’s one of the ones where you’re not really sure how to eat it. You just put everything out on the table and let people kinda heap things up in their bowls, I guess. Our greens ended up being overcooked, and the chilli oil in our noodles was overpowering. We probably could’ve used an extra tea bag or two in the tea. The steak was great though, and the flavours all worked really well together. The Snook felt that that overall the concept was a really good one, even if our execution didn’t quite live up to it. We both agreed that our version only merited a 7.5 out of 10, but the recipe itself is probably worth 8.5 out of 10. It’s a relatively quick one to prepare, and I think it would be nice for a casual group meal with friends. (Note: the messiness of slurping up noodles probably precludes this one from Date Night!) Read on for a photo essay of the preparation.Pre-start prep: We got out all the necessary ingredients, tools, and cooking vessels. The kitchen was clean (well, as clean as it gets) and everything wiped down and ready to go. The kettle was boiled and the grill pan was put onto high heat. We had the grill pan for the steaks, a large pot for the greens and noodles, and a large jug for the tea. (You’ll also need a couple cutting boards and several bowls to serve everything in.)

First up are the ingredients for the steak: 2 rib-eye steaks (sold here as “Scotch fillets”), Szechuan pepper, Chinese five-spice, ginger, red chilli, garlic, lime, and coriander.

Next the greens: snow peas, bok choi, broccoli, black bean sauce, and lemon.

Now all the bits for the Dan Dan noodles: chilli oil, soy sauce, garlic, beansprouts, coriander, spring onions, egg noodles, beef stock cube, lemon, honey, and lime juice.

Lastly, the ingredients for the tea: rosehip and hibiscus tea bags, clementine (mandarin), lime, sugar, and ice.

Pots and pans, ready to go! The grill pan is for the steak; the pot is for the greens and noodles; and the jug is for the tea.

Here we go! The Snook started by seasoning the steaks with salt and pepper.

Then he got to work pounding Szechuan pepper in the mortar and pestle. (We use this stuff on mapo tofu fairly regularly; it’s really nice in Asian dishes.)

He put some of the Szechuan pepper into our two serving bowls and then sprinkled the rest over the meat along with five-spice.

Next he drizzled the steaks with olive oil and rubbed the spices in. He also continued prepping the bowls with chilli oil, soy sauce, and crushed garlic. (Note: We only used one tablespoon of chilli oil each, and it was still really hot. So be careful with it!)

Time to get the tea going! He added two tea bags to the jug along with a spoonful of sugar and the skins of the mandarin and lime.

The grill pan was nicely hot, so he put the steaks in for 2 minutes each side.

Now he went back to the tea and filled the jug halfway with boiling water so it could steep.

Next he prepared the bowl of “garnishes”: beansprouts and coriander.

After two minutes, he flipped the steaks. They looked great!

Time to get the greens going! He prepped the snow peas and sliced up the bok choi and broccoli.

The greens went into the pot with more boiling water from the kettle.

Yet more prepping of the serving bowls! Next he had to slice green onions to place in the bowls.

When the steaks finished cooking, he put them on a clean cutting board to rest. He then grated ginger and chilli onto the board.

Then he drizzled over olive oil and lime juice before tossing the steaks in the dressing.

The next step is to finish the greens. He spread black bean sauce on the serving platter…

…before fishing the veg out with tongs and piling it all on top.

The greens were finished with olive oil and lemon juice. (We could tell at this point they were overcooked. Still, they smelled nice.)

The tea had finished steeping and was a beautiful reddish-pink. The Snook removed the tea bags and added handfuls of ice to cool it down. He also squeezed in the juice of the mandarin and lime.

The egg noodles were added to the cooking water left over from the greens, along with a stock cube.

Yet more prep work on the bowls! He finished them off with lemon juice and a bit of honey.

It was finally time to slice up the steaks. He cut them at an angle and then tossed them in the accumulated juices and dressing.

Here’s the finished dish of steak, complete with coriander garnish.

And here’s the finished jug of iced tea. (We later topped it up with more ice.)

Finally, he dished up the noodles into each bowl to finish. Here’s the completed meal of Dan Dan noodles with rib-eye steaks, greens, and garnishes, along with a glass of chilled hibiscus tea.

Tasting notes: The steak was excellent. Really just perfect. The noodles were good until we dug down and hit all the chilli oil. Yowza! Yeah, we’d definitely use less next time. The greens were overcooked, but the black bean sauce made for a really nice dressing. The tea could’ve been stronger, but it was still sweet and refreshing (which we needed to cut through the chilli). So yeah, our execution of this one wasn’t perfect, but we only need to tweak a few things next time to get it right. It’s a warm, slurpy kind of meal, just the thing for a cold winter’s night. (We had enough steak and greens left over to make another batch of soup for lunch the next day too!) So a 7.5 for execution, but an 8.5 for the concept.

Stay tuned for another recipe from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals!