Beef with Pineapple - my fave

This is one of my favorites from way back.

I adapted the recipe from here:
http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/chinese-recipes/cantonese-beef-pineapple.htm

I used a flank steak, which usually come out at around a pound to a pound and a half of meat. For stir-fries I like to slice the steak lengthwise in half, then thinly slice each of the long strips, ACROSS THE GRAIN (this is important). Slicing across the grain keeps the meat tender. Nothing like it for stir-fries (ignore everything you've ever heard about top round being good - flank steak is the gold standard).

I put the sliced strips of beef into a big bowl and sprinkled with about a tablespoon of bottled teriyaki sauce. That's because I'm running out of soy sauce (I know, I know), so I knew the sugar and other seasonings in the teriyaki would work just as well, maybe better. Then I sprinkled about a half tablespoon of cornstarch over all that, and mixed well. You let that stand while everything else gets sliced.

I like to add to the pineapple, because while that tastes really good, you want some contrast of flavor. So I decided to slice up a half of a Vidalia onion and about a quarter of this huge green pepper I had. I don't chop the veggies up - I really just slice them into strips about three inches long or so, about a half an inch wide. Set all that aside, and then you tackle the pineapple. Now, canned pineapple is just fine to use, but for this, I really really like the taste of fresh. So I took a half a pineapple and turned it into chunks that were about a half an inch thick. And set that aside too.

Then, you mix up the thickener. I used about a tablespoon of cornstarch, a tablespoon of dry sherry, a teaspoon of white sugar (could use brown too), a half teaspoon of salt, and a splash of teriyaki sauce. I also added a scant 1/4 cup of water. Mix until smooth and set aside.

After that, I just followed the normal stir fry routine. You put a little oil in the pan and stir fry the veggies first. These should stay pretty crisp - you don't want them all limp, so it only takes maybe five minutes or so. I added a little salt while I was stir-frying. I put the veggies on a platter to wait, then quickly ran the pineapple into the pan, no longer than a minute or so, and put it back into its bowl. Then, you stir-fry the meat with about a teaspoon or two of oil, and this usually takes two batches to make the meat brown up a little. You can never get your pan as hot as the Chinese restaurant, so your meat will never look as pretty, but you do want to get it fairly cooked through, although you still have a little more cooking time to put on it at this stage.

After the first batch, I put it next to the veggies on the platter while the second batch cooked. After that batch is done, I put all the veggies, plus the set-aside meat into the pan and stirred to combine. At that point, I put in the thickening mixture and stirred it around so it would do its thing. Finally, I tossed in the pineapple, stirred it again, and then sprinkled some dark sesame oil over the top before plating on the platter.

That's it! As with all Chinese food, the prep work takes like 20-25 minutes (depending on your knife skills), and the coming-together part takes like 8. And then it's eaten in 5.

I served this with white rice, and put some stir-fried green beans with oyster sauce and garlic on the side.