A Weeknight Stir Fry

This may not happen to you, but every now and then I will start craving red meat.  And when I realize it, I'll think back and think hmmm, I guess it has been a few weeks since I've had red meat.  I've never been vegetarian, I grew up in a meat eating family, what's this about?  Well, I think there are a couple reasons, but mostly I just love vegetables so much, that when I'm traveling or out, I steer straight at the vegetables on the menu and when I'm home I desire more fish and chicken, now that I have natural chicken in the freezer.  So, that's a long introduction to tonight's weeknight meal.

First this morning, I thought I wonder what red meat is in the freezer.  I went and looked and found some of my parents amazing stew meat from their farm-raised Fallow Deer.  Score!  Hmmm, what to do with the stew meat?  It didn't take me long to think stir fry?  Yes, stir fry!

I decided on a basic recipe out of a cookbook I got when living in Dayton, called Causing a Stir, fabulous food to get people talking: A Junior League of Dayton Cookbook (2000).  I must say this cookbook has never disappointed. 

The recipe is below as written, but of course I used the vegetables I had on hand and jazzed it up just a bit, my changes are in italics.

Thai Lemon Beef
1 (1 inch thick) boneless beef top round steak (Even better, steak or stew meat from local farm raised venison!)
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup water
2-3 teaspoons dried red pepper flakes (I only used 1 teaspoon as dear hubby can't handle that much heat.)
4 cloves garlic (I used 2 cloves, again garlic bugs the hubby.)
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1/3 pound snow peas
4 green onions, cut into 2-inch pieces
4 carrots, julienned (As you can see below I used celery, carrot, and the stalks from swiss chard for my veggies tonight.)

2 teaspoons cornstarch
Hot cooked Oriental noodles or rice (I'm working on clearing out my well stocked pantry and used some whole wheat egg noodles I had.)

1. Cut steak across the grain into 1/8 inch thick strips and place in a medium bowl.
2. Combine soy sauce, lemon juice, water, pepper flakes, and garlic.  Pour half of mixture over steak; reserve remaining half.  Cover steak and marinate in refrigerator for 1 to 8 hours.
3. When ready to cook, drain steak, discarding marinade.
4. Stir-fry steak in oil in 2 batches.  Using a large skillet or wok over medium to medium high heat for 1 minute, or until outside of beef is no longer pink.  Remove from skillet. 

1. Add vegetables to skillet; stir-fry 3 minutes, or until crisp tender.

1. Whisk corn starch into reserved marinade.  Stir into vegetables until thickened, add steak and stir-fry until heated.

I jazzed this up by adding a spoon of Black Bean Paste to the sauce, so I could empty that jar in the refrigerator, but I think it would have been good as is.  Also, I added chopped peanuts on the top.  I mean really, when aren't chopped peanuts a good idea?