Beef Stir-Fry

We have been talking about getting a cast iron wok for a while now.  All the good ones are expensive; $75 or so.  The other day Mom was at the thrift store and made a great discover, a 14 inch, flat bottom, cast iron, Lodge wok for the high price of $16.  It looks like it has not been used at all.  It is in excellent shape.  This is good.  So tonight I tried it for the first time.  Made beef stir-fry.  Considering the amount of vegetables and the little amount of beef I used it was more like vegetable stir-fry with a bit of beef.

First I got my mise en place together.  (Mise en place is a French phrase for "everything in it's place."  Meaning, all your prep done and ready to go.)

Sirloin steak, bok choy, bell pepper, cabbage, carrot, onion, garlic, sugar snap peas, and water chestnuts.

Then I heated oil and butter in the wok and sauteed the onion and garlic.

Added the beef with soy sauce and balsamic vinegar and let it cook for a bit,

then the carrot,

broccoli,

 bell pepper,

cabbage and bok choy ends,

bok choy tops,

and lastly the sugar snap peas and water chestnuts.

The finished product.

Served atop rice.

It was good.  This probably wasn't true stir-frying though.  I did a bit of researching, aka watched a Jamie Olive stir-fry tutorial on Youtube, and you are supposed to heat the wok really hot then pour in the oil.  Stir-frying is supposed to be quick, quick.  And you aren't supposed to do more than 2 servings per wok or it will be more like steaming.  Oops.  I probably did like 9 servings.  Oh, well.  First time using the wok.  Now I will know what to do better next time.  And I think I will do more stir-fry research.  I like this thing of stir-frying.

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