Thursday Dinner: Beef and sugar snap pea stir-fry with hot and sour soup

Stir-fry is a nice quick dinner. With the time that you save, you can make soup for the side.

Beef and sugar snap pea stir-fry (for 2 people):
Sugar snap pea, trimmed (about 1 cup)
Boneless beef shank (6 oz)
Vegetable oil (1 Tbsp)
Salt (a pinch)
Rice cooking wine (1 Tbsp)
Garlic chili sauce (1 tsp)
Soy sauce (1 Tbsp)

1. Boil sugar snap peas until they get bright green and rinse under running cold water. Slice beef shank as thinly as you can.
2. Heat a wok or pan with oil over high heat. Once it gets smoking hot, put beef in. Add salt. Stir fry until the color of the beef starts to change. Add cooking wine. Once the wine evaporates, add sugar snap peas. Stir fry until beef get nice and brown. Add garlic chili sauce and soy sauce. Mix well and serve right away.

Hot and sour soup (for 2-3 people):
Beef broth (3 cups) - I only had 1 cup of beef broth, so I mixed it with water, but it was fine. You can also use chicken stock.
Daikon radish, peeled and cut into small sticks (about 1 cup)
Celery, cut into small sticks (about 1 cup)
Rice vinegar (1/2 cup) - If you don't want it to be too sour, you can put in less.
Soy sauce (1/4 cup)
Chili pepper (1/4 tsp)
Egg, beaten (2)
Potato starch or corn starch (1.5 Tbsp)
Water (1.5 Tbsp)
Green onions, chopped (3 Tbsp or as needed)

1. Bring beef broth, vinegar, soy sauce, and chili peppers to boil. Add daikon radish and celery. Once the soup comes to boil, turn the heat down to medium. Cook until the vegetables are tender.
2. Drizzle in eggs into the soup. Close the lid for a minute until the eggs are cooked.
3. Mix potato starch and water together to make slurry. Drizzle the slurry into the soup while stirring. Once the soup thickens little bit, turn the heat off and add green onions.

I used daikon radish and celery because they were in my fridge, but you can add any other vegetables like bamboo shoot, pak choy, spinach, chopped string beans, etc. Make sure you taste the soup before you add all the vinegar and soy sauce, because you might want to add less or more depending on how salty your stock/broth is and how sour you want the soup to be.

Don't forget a bowl of rice!

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