Last week I made Ginger Beef (with or without Snow Peas) from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook.

The stir-fry itself was very straightforward, and familiar to much of the stir-fries in the cookbook: wash, dry, and marinate the meat, mix together a sauce, stir-fry in batches with aromatics and a vegetable. The ginger in this dish was dominant. It calls for two ounces processed in a food processor; two ounces is a lot of ginger. I opted for regular green beans instead of snow peas, since I always find snow peas fibrous even after trimming and de-stringing them.

The dish came out very good and much less saucy than the Beef with Broccoli the week before, which I liked. The whole family liked it. My wife said, “this is good; what is it?” and she rarely comments on dinners. My son got seconds of the beef, and my daughter ate a green been (but nothing more) and said it was good.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.