The Wok Wednesday dish for this past week is Chinese Jamaican Stir-Fried Beef and Carrots. Alas, we’re running a bit late  – though only a week 😉  Sometimes life becomes wonderfully busy.

I also have been on a search for the habanero sauce this dish was created with. Sadly, no success, tho I think I can easily order it. Surprisingly in the overwhelming array of hot sauces available in local grocers,  including several Asian stores, I did not find it. I did, however, have a nice habanero sauce at home and adjusted it to closely approximate the heat and sweet level we were looking for. While I still will search for Matouk’s Calypso sauce, I found my Costa Rican made Turtle Bay Habanero (a gift from a wicked godson, I suspect) plus some sweet mustard and a little sweetness from Lilikoi syrup (3:2:1) stood in just fine. Next time I might just add a teaspoon of Aunty Lilikoi’s Habanero Mustard to the hot sauce.

We loved the quickness of this dish – and even the slicing of the meat (the longest prep needed) took only a few minutes.  I did plan ahead a little after my closest butcher was not able to provide a small enough quantity of flank steak, and I bought flap steak instead. That was much more marbled, and ‘softer’, so I popped it in the freezer for 20-25 minutes to make slicing easier, like you might with chicken.   The upside of this substitution is that it had great flavour.

My cautiousness about habanero meant I actually was seeking all sweet counterbalances, so I also used red onion. I think this dish has just the right amount of heat to leave you with a satisfying “happy mouth” without destroying your enjoyment. I am not a serious pepper-head, so bear with me – this ride was safe but deliciously heated. I also followed Grace Young’s excellent tips on cooking rice on the stovetop rather than delegating this to my rice cooker. With my semi-brown rice, this was the best result I have had, and I also had some leftover for a fried rice dish later in the week.

This recipe is found in Stir Frying to the Sky’s Edge, page 78.  If you have not already visited the Wok Wednesday website or our Facebook group – please stop on in, get your book and wok with us!