Take one rib eye steak. Add a boatload of shredded zucchini.
Mix it all up with some sweet and savory saucy-ness and you will end up with this beautific bowl of Asian inspired alchemy……..all the beefy stir-fry, slippery ramen goodness with not one carbie noodle in sight.
And no, it’s not what you’re most likely thinking; she’s just replacing the ramen with something green so she can feel like she’s playing up to all of those New Years Resolutionists out there… you’re not foolin’ anyone, lady! Give me the ramen noodles! You’re just trying to cover up THE LACK OF with a chopped GOURD!
To that I say, no way!
I don’t even DO resolutions. Ever. (Unless you consider the resolution of having no resolutions to be a resolution) Wait. Now I’m confused.
But, anyhoooo – this gorgeously green super easy one pan wonder is so dang tasty delicious, exactly as it is, in all of its veggie-centric glory, that once you give it a try you will see –
This is just really, really good.
Just like you. With no resolutions required.
I say we drink to THAT. (hic!)
To start this amazing compilation, what we have here is a single one pound rib eye steak.
Highly marbled (an eloquent word for fatty), tender and full of flavor, the only down side to this is clearly obvious – the copious amount of lard running through the meat. Yikes. Now a certain amount of marbling is to be expected (that’s what makes it good!), so don’t get crazy but just go ahead and carefully remove the larger portions of blatant icky fattiness. Then slice the beef very, very thin. You can see that even though I removed quite a bit of fat (aaarrrrhg, sorry about the graphic photos) I still ended up with a decent amount of that pink perfection.
Phew! Done with that part. It all gets better from here, I promise.
Pop 1/4 cup of corn starch into a gallon sized baggie and throw in your sliced beef. Now zip ‘er up and give this a good shake. You want to get all of the meat nicely coated and ghostly looking. We’ll get back to that in a minute.
Prepping the zucchini is a snap (especially compared to dissecting that steak….but still…. this takes no time at ALL) – simply trim off the ends and then push ’em through the grater attachment of your food processor. Z i i i i i i i i i i i p. You’ll need about 7 cups of the stuff, 4 or 5 zooks (depending on their size) should do the trick. Plop your veg shreds into a colander and set that aside.
Now gather up your sauce components.
Measure out 1/3 cup of dark brown sugar, 1/3 of a cup of Tamari (or Soy) sauce, and 1 tablespoon of dark sesame oil. Finely grate up about an inch chunk of fresh ginger root until you end up with a very generous tablespoon, and that garlic clove you see? Grate that baby up finely as well. Mix the brown sugar and sesame oil in with the Tamari sauce until the sugar is almost dissolved.
Take an extra second to chop some fresh cilantro and finely slice up a green onion while you’re at it. You’ll be glad you got that out of the way because the rest of this moves pretty quickly…….so get ready……
It’s go time.
Start by adding 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil into a deep pan (like maybe something you would make soup in) and getting that up to a medium high heat. 
Gently place half of the corn starch coated meat into the hot oil, and TRY to keep the meat spaced somewhat apart (it will brown better but you can see how well I did with that, ha). Let this sizzle away for about two minutes,
and then turn each piece over, to fry up on the other side, another minute or so. You want to get your meat crisply browned, but remember it’s really thin so it won’t take long! Once this is where you want it remove it to a plate (just keep it right there, you’ll be seeing this again in a second), add a tad bit more oil to the pan, and repeat with the remaining beef. Once all of the steak is beautifully burnished, return the first batch into the pot, turn the heat down to medium, and stir in the grated ginger and garlic.
Oh, the smell!!!!!! Now just spin this around for a minute, you don’t want to burn the garlic. Now pour in that sweet salty sauce……..
it will bubble up and thicken for you. And just when you think it may be getting too thick….
in goes that mighty mound of zucchini slivers (now you see why we used a pot instead of a shallow frying pan). Stir everyone up and give this about five minutes of cook down time.
The zucchini will release their water and shrink waaaaay down, creating a lovely, saucy, ramen noodle like texture. All you need now is a hit of chopped cilantro, a speckle of green onion….
and a bowl to schloop a nice big helping all up into. You’ll need lots of napkins too. Spicy red Sriracha drizzle totally optional but highly recommended.
RECIPE BELOW: You can get this into a bowl and your tush onto the couch in under thirty minutes with this one – no problemo! Truly the most time consuming component to this whole she-bang is the meat-fat-liposuction-surgery action, (am I the only person so weird about this?) otherwise this is a breeze! Makes enough for two enormous helpings and if you are lucky, a little left over for lunch the next day……which I was just finishing up as I post this. Lucky me. SO good!
- one - 1lb. rib eye steak, trimmed of excess fat and sliced very thin*
- 3-5 medium to large sized zucchini, trimmed and shredded, totaling about 7 cups (you need more than you think!)
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- Olive oil (approx 1/4 cup or so)
- 1/3 cup Soy or Tamari Sauce
- 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon dark (toasted) sesame oil
- 1 heaping tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
- 1-2 garlic cloves, finely grated
- 1 thinly sliced green onion
- handful of roughly chopped fresh cilantro
- Sriracha sauce
- Dump the corn starch into a gallon size zip lock baggie. Add the rib eye slices, close the baggie securely and give it a shake, thoroughly coating the meat with the corn starch. Set this aside.
- Mix together the Tamari (or soy) with the brown sugar and sesame oil. Set aside.
- Coat the bottom of a deep pot (like a soup pot) with several tablespoons of olive oil and bring this up to a medium high heat. Once this is hot, add half of the dusted rib eye slices, taking care to keep them even and separated (as best you can). Let these sizzle away for a minute or two, then turn them over to brown on the other side. Remove these from the pan and set to the side. Add more oil as necessary, make sure it is hot, add the remainder of the beef, taking care to brown it well on both sides. Return the first batch back to the pan, and turn the heat to medium.
- Add the grated ginger and garlic and stir this around with the meat for a minute.
- Add the Tamari brown sugar sesame oil mixture to the meat, and stir this around. It will bubble for you and thicken up. After about a minute or two, dump in the shredded zucchini and give this a good stir. Let this cook down until the zucchini shrinks and the sauce becomes a little thinner, about 3 - 5 minutes. **
- Stir in half of your chopped cilantro and green onion, saving a bit for extra garnish, if desired. Divide up into bowls and pass the Sriracha.
- * partially freeze the steak to make it super easy to slice thinly.
- ** What to do if you feel that the sauce is too watery? Zucchini vary a lot in their water content so if you feel you need your sauce a tad bit thicker after the zucchini has broken down a bit do this: In a small bowl, mix together a teaspoon of corn starch with a teaspoon of Tamari (or soy sauce), and a teaspoon of water. Stir until smooth and then add to the pot. Make sure to bring this up to a bubble. It should thicken right up for you.
