Sesame Beef Stir Fry

I am attempting sushi. This is either brave or foolish, and the distinction depends entirely on the result. I have watched six YouTube tutorials, read three blog posts, purchased a bamboo rolling mat, and bought the specific short-grain rice that sushi requires. I am a cook who learned from a tradition that prizes long, slow cooking and improvisation. Sushi requires precision, speed, and the willingness to follow rules exactly. It is the anti-Lowcountry, and I am both intimidated and fascinated.

My first attempt was bad. The rice was overcooked, the nori was tough, the roll fell apart. Robert walked through the kitchen and said, "That looks... interesting," which is what Robert says when something looks terrible. My second attempt was better — the rice was right, the roll held together, the fish was properly sliced. It was not sushi a Japanese person would recognize as excellent, but it was sushi a forty-five-year-old Lowcountry cook could be quietly proud of.

Carrie has been watching my sushi attempts with glee. "Your knife angle is wrong," she said on my third attempt, and she was right — she had watched the same YouTube tutorials and retained more than I had. She corrected my technique and the fourth roll was the best yet, and I told her she was a good teacher, and she said, "I know," without irony, because Carrie at fourteen has the confidence I am still building at forty-five.

At the library, the holiday rush is on. People are checking out audiobooks for road trips, cookbooks for holiday dinners, novels for the long, dark evenings. December is our busiest month, and the busyness is joyful — it means people are reading, or planning to read, or giving books as gifts, which is the highest form of human generosity.

I called Mama on Sunday. She told me she's making fruitcake for Christmas — the dense, bourbon-soaked, candied-fruit fruitcake that has been her Christmas tradition for as long as I can remember. I asked her to save me a piece. She said, "I'm saving you a whole cake." This is love in the Simmons family: it arrives in cake form, bourbon-soaked, wrapped in foil, given without being asked for.

Mama’s fruitcake call left me in that particular warm-and-melancholy mood that December always brings — grateful for the love that arrives without being asked for, and suddenly very hungry for something fast and satisfying that I could make entirely on my own terms. Carrie’s confidence in the kitchen had rubbed off on me too, and I wanted to cook something that rewarded decisiveness: high heat, quick hands, no second-guessing. This sesame beef stir fry is exactly that kind of recipe.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs flank steak or sirloin, sliced thin against the grain
3 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil, divided
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 cup snap peas, trimmed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (optional)
3 green onions, sliced thin, for garnish
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
Cooked short-grain white rice, for serving

Instructions

Marinate the beef. In a bowl, toss the sliced beef with 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, and the cornstarch. Let rest at room temperature for at least 10 minutes while you prep the vegetables and sauce.
Make the sauce. Whisk together the remaining 2 tablespoons soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, honey, remaining 1 tablespoon sesame oil, and chili garlic sauce if using. Set aside.
Sear the beef. Heat a large wok or wide skillet over high heat until very hot. Add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Working in two batches so the pan stays hot, sear the beef in a single layer for 1 to 2 minutes per side until deeply browned. Remove to a plate.
Cook the vegetables. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to the pan. Add the bell pepper and snap peas and stir fry over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes until just tender-crisp. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
Finish the dish. Return the beef to the pan and pour the sauce over everything. Toss over high heat for 1 to 2 minutes until the sauce thickens and coats the beef and vegetables evenly.
Serve. Spoon over cooked short-grain rice. Garnish with green onions and toasted sesame seeds and serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Sesame Beef Stir Fry — When You’re Still Learning the Rules of the Kitchen