Beef with Onions, Beef Acebolado are the same things from two different continents.
One of my family’s go to dishes is beef (or pork, or chicken) with onions. I never knew that this delicious, simple, and inexpensive dish was enjoyed almost all over the world with some modifications and different spices.
What makes this dish special is that it uses small and often leftover pieces of meat that have been cut off from bigger pieces. To save money, I often purchase meat in bulk and opt to “butcher” most of my steaks and meals myself. What this means is that often times, in order to make a steak a steak, I have to cut off some excess pieces and clean up the steaks. These extra cuttings often contain edible meat on them, but are too small to be called a steak or make a meal out of a piece. But, if you add all these smaller cuttings together, they are great to add to other ingredients. I usually have these cuttings from filet mignon, rib eye, tri-tip, and sirloin. The cut off pieces are often de-greased, de-veined, and sliced into small pieces to be added in different dishes.
This version was often made by my father and enjoyed over a bed of rice. We were lucky if the dish was a little extra saucy to mix together and made the rice even more delicious.
Here’s the recipe.
INGREDIENTS
1 lb of cut off meats in 2 in x 1/2 in
1 tbsp corn starch
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 medium onion julienned (long strips)
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Pinch of ground pepper
Salt to taste
DIRECTIONS
In a bowl, add meat, corn starch, and soy sauce and marinate for 30 minutes, but up to 2 hrs.
Add 1 tbsp of oil in a skillet (frying pan) and sweat the onions and garlic (soften them), remove onions and garlic from the skillet. Add 1 tbsp of oil and brown the meat on high heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add onions back to pan and mix together.
Serve over a bed of rice or as a sandwich.
Cost: About $5, if meat is purchased on sale.
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 10-15 minutes
Servings: 4
Tip 1: Add green onions and a pinch of brown sugar and you’ll have made Mongolian Beef.
Tip 2: Add sliced celery for some fiber.
Enjoy your FOOD and your MONEY!
