Bistek

Thin beef seared fast in calamansi and soy, under more onion than seems reasonable.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

• 600 g beef sirloin, sliced 5 mm across the grain
• 120 ml soy sauce
• 80 ml calamansi juice, from about 20 fruit
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 4 large onions, in 8 mm rings
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 tablespoons oil
• hot rice, to serve

Method

1. THE MEAT IS SLICED THIN AND COOKED FAST, which is the whole difference between this and every other beef dish in this collection. Nothing here braises.
2. Mix the soy, calamansi and pepper and turn the beef through it. ONE HOUR, no more. Calamansi is acid and the slices are 5 mm thick, so a marinade left overnight comes out pale and grainy on the outside.
3. Lift the beef out and keep the marinade.
4. Fry the onion rings in the oil over a medium heat until they slump and sweeten, about 8 minutes, then lift them out. They want to be soft, not brown.
5. Turn the heat up. Sear the beef IN BATCHES, one layer at a time, about 1 minute a side. A crowded pan drops its temperature and the slices stew in their own liquid.
6. Return all the beef, add the garlic, pour in the kept marinade and let it bubble down 2 minutes to a thin glaze.
7. Pile the onions back on top off the heat. Rice.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes