Stir-Fried Beef with Chili, Cumin and Garlic

First off, let me begin by apologizing for the gross lack of updates. If you are / were ever a college student, you'd know that the time after midterms is usually when profs like to pile on projects and assignments, and December is finals. Hence, I haven't done much cooking to begin with, to say nothing about finding time to write about them. But now I'm home, it's Christmas, and I have a few minutes to post a couple of dishes I did find time to cook and photograph (but not write about).

Let's begin with one of my recent favorites: stir-fried beef with chili, cumin and garlic. Now, this dish is suppose to be made with lamb (and the first time I tried, I did). It is based on this recipe from the New York Times: http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com...

Cumin is probably my favorite spice. In my brain, it is widely associated with cumin-crusted lamb kabobs, a street food commonly found in China, and is very fragrant.

Now, as I previously mentioned, the first time I cooked this, I used lamb--which is ideal for this dish. However, for convenience's sake, I tried it with beef (the lamb at my local supermarket blows, and I have to go all the way to Whole Foods to get good lamb). I'm happy to report that I found beef worked really well also.


The ingredients needed are as follows:

• 0.75 lbs beef (chopped into large pieces, approx. 1 cubic inch).
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds (apparently it's important that seeds, not powder, is used. I'll experiment another day).
• 1/2 tbsp chili flakes.
• 2 or 3 cloves of crushed garlic.
• 1 tbsp soy sauce (I used tamari since it was handy).
• 1 tbsp cooking oil (I use canola).
  

I toasted the cumin until it was fragrant, and mixed it together with the other ingredients (not oil) and let it marinate for a while (I let it sit for 10 minutes---it probably had no impact on the taste). Then, I stir fried it and served it on a bed of rice.


I normally eat a lot of fruit for dessert, which is how I justified eating a meal consisting entirely of grains and protein. But still, I concede it is not healthy, and I'm trying to cut back on the meat.