Garlic-less Dinner

I finally made it back to cook tonight. I've had a piece of beef sitting in the freezer for a while so stir-fried beef was on the menu tonight. I marinated it with some oyster sauce, worchester sauce and black pepper. While slicing up carrots, ginger and spring onions to stir-fry it with, I suddenly realised that the house was out of garlic! Hunting high and low, there was nary a garlic clove to be found! And to add to that, I had a bunch of sawi (mustard greens) soaking in the sink which we normally fry with garlic! Then again...this is, after all, the same person who came up with Junkie Chicken! So improvise I did!

The beef was fragrant enough with the ginger and spring onions. I made the mistake of frying it for too long so it came out a little tough and over-cooked. While cooking, I added a dash of soy sauce, a little more black pepper and because I'm Hokkien, a dash of black soy sauce! The mixture of sauces gave it a nice, tangy taste and the ginger made it very fragrant. I love using julienned ginger strips in my cooking. It somehow brings back warm memories of Mom's and Grandma's cooking!

A close-up of the stir-fried beef

Next came the vegetables. As I wondered how I was going to fry them without garlic, clever Bro suggested using some fried shallots Mom had left behind in a bottle instead. And I did just that, with a dash of oyster sauce. It didn't taste too bad but the sweetness of the shallots took some use getting to compared to the normal garlicky savoury taste.

I wanted to try plating it but I think my skills in that area still needs much improvement! Foodcrazee, can please volunteer some tips?! :)

Another close-up. Just so you can see there was actually rice underneath the egg!