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Mise en Place
What You Need.
Fall in flavor, not in weight. A full tablespoon of coarsely cracked black pepper is the whole personality of this dish, and it's more than sounds reasonable until you taste it against the beef and the sweet, charred cabbage. Everything else is pantry: soy, a little brown sugar, a splash of vinegar at the end. The beef gets tossed in the pepper mixture and can sit anywhere from fifteen minutes to all day, then the whole cook is under ten minutes on hot steel. Crack the peppercorns yourself with the bottom of a pan. Pre-ground pepper is dust by comparison.
The Beef
1 lbsirloin, sliced thin across the grain
1 tbsp + 1 tspwhole black peppercorns, coarsely cracked
4 clovesgarlic, grated
1 tbsplight brown sugar
1.5 tspcornstarch
1 tspkosher salt
3 tbspsoy sauce
The Cabbage
1 smallgreen cabbage, about 12 oz, sliced thin
3 tbspavocado oil
1.5 tbspsherry vinegar (rice vinegar works)
to tastesalt
To Finish
1 tbsptoasted sesame seeds
3scallions, sliced thin
2 cupscooked rice, for Chris
Slicing the Sirloin
Twenty minutes in the freezer firms it up enough to slice paper-thin. Cut across the grain into strips about 1/4 inch thick, the way you'd slice for cheesesteaks. Thin is what lets the pepper crust form and the beef stay tender in a four-minute cook.
If Central Market has pre-shaved sirloin or steak-sandwich meat, that's the same thing and it saves you the knife work.
Adapted from Kay Chun, NYT Cooking · moved to the flat-top
01
Step One · Marinate
Crack the pepper, coat the beef.
The Marinade
Minimum
Betteran hour, or all day in the fridge
Cook the rice nowit's the only slow thing
The pepper, garlic, sugar, and cornstarch go on dry, so they cling to the beef instead of washing off in a wet marinade. The cornstarch is doing quiet work: it protects the surface of the meat on hot steel and thickens the soy into a glaze at the end.
A · Crack the Peppercorns
Whole peppercorns on a cutting board, the bottom of a heavy pan pressed and rocked over them until they're coarse and broken, not powdered. You want visible pieces. A mortar works too. Pre-ground pepper will not get you this dish.
B · Coat and Wait
Stir the cracked pepper, grated garlic, brown sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a bowl. Add the sliced beef and toss until every piece is coated and the mixture has vanished into the meat. Fifteen minutes at room temperature is the floor. An hour is better. Covered in the fridge, it holds up to eight hours, which is the version where you do this in the morning and cook when you get home.
C · Prep the Rest
Slice the cabbage thin, core out, into ribbons about the width of a pencil. Slice the scallions. Measure the soy and vinegar into two small cups so they're ready to pour. Once the beef hits the steel, nothing waits.
♪ Press playRed Eyes· The War on Drugs
02
Step Two · The Beef
Single layer, mostly still.
Beef · High Zone
Preheat
Sear
Soy toss
5 minthen off to a bowl
This is where the flat-top beats the skillet the recipe calls for. A skillet crowds a pound of beef and steams it. The steel gives it room, so you spread it in one layer and it browns instead of boiling in its own juice.
A · Get It Hot
One zone on high, eight minutes. Two tablespoons of oil spread thin right before the beef goes down. It should ripple and just barely smoke.
B · Spread and Sear
Beef onto the hot zone in a single layer, no piling. Leave it about 90 seconds so the underside browns and the pepper toasts, then toss and spread it out again. Three to four minutes total, until the edges are browned and crisp in spots but the centers are still pink. It finishes later with the cabbage, so pull it early.
C · Soy and Off
Pour the soy over the beef and toss fast for about a minute as it sizzles down into a glaze with the cornstarch. Scrape everything, beef and glaze, into a bowl and set it at the edge of the steel.
♪ Cook toJesus, Etc.· Wilco
03
Step Three · The Cabbage
Char it, then let it soften.
Cabbage · Same Zone
Untouched
Tossing
Marry
~7 mincrisp-tender, not limp
Cabbage wants two things in sequence: a hard char to get the sweet, nutty browned edges, and then a few minutes of tossing to soften without going soggy. The beef fond and glaze left on the steel go straight into it.
A · Down and Don't Touch
The last tablespoon of oil onto the zone the beef left, then all the cabbage spread in an even layer, and hands off for a full minute. That's how you get the caramelized pieces that make this taste like more than boiled cabbage.
B · Toss to Crisp-Tender
Now toss, spread, wait thirty seconds, toss again. Four to six minutes, until it's wilted and charred at the edges but still has bite. Splash the vinegar over it, toss once, and salt to taste. The vinegar hits hot steel and the smell tells you it's right.
C · Beef Back In
Return the beef and every drop of juice from the bowl to the cabbage. Toss for about a minute until the beef is warmed through and the glaze coats the cabbage. Off the heat. Sesame seeds crushed between your fingers over the top, then the scallions.
The Vinegar Is Not Optional
A tablespoon and a half of sherry vinegar sounds like nothing. It's what keeps the dish from tasting flat and heavy, cutting through the soy and the beef fat right at the end. Rice vinegar works if that's what's in the pantry, just use a touch more.
♪ Plate toBoy with a Coin· Iron & Wine
Two Plates
Same steel, one difference.
The cabbage is already the base of this dish, so Lauren's plate is barely a variation. The rice is the only thing that changes.
Chris
Over Rice
Bed of rice
Beef and cabbage piled over, glaze and all
Sesame and scallions on top
Lauren
No Rice
Beef and cabbage straight into a bowl
Give her the extra cabbage, it's the point of this dish anyway
Sesame and scallions on top, extra scallion
Leftovers
This is one of the rare stir-fries that's as good cold the next day. Rolled in a tortilla or piled on a crusty roll for lunch, it holds up, and the pepper actually reads stronger once it's cooled.
The Soundtrack · September Evening
Warm, a little wistful.
01Red EyesThe War on Drugs
02Jesus, Etc.Wilco
03Boy with a CoinIron & Wine
04Ragged WoodFleet Foxes
05Pulaski at NightAndrew Bird
The cook is fast, but the mood isn't. This is music for the part of the year when it's still hot at dinner but the light is starting to leave earlier. War on Drugs to open while the beef sits in the pepper, Iron & Wine as it comes off the steel, Andrew Bird once the bowls are empty and nobody's cleared the table yet.
The Pour
What to drink.
While You Cook
A Pilsner
Live Oak Pilz out of Austin if the store has it, or any clean Czech-style pilsner. This much black pepper wants something crisp and bitter enough to stand next to it without adding sweetness, and a good pils does exactly that. Cold, quick, and gone before the cabbage is done.
For the Table
Dry Riesling
The sleeper pairing for anything with soy and cracked pepper. A dry German or Finger Lakes Riesling has the acid to cut the glaze and just enough fruit to soften the heat from the pepper. Look for trocken on a German label, or ask the wine desk at Central Market for a dry one. If you'd rather go red, a light Beaujolais, served cool.
For the Tracker
Macros.
Per Plate
Half the beef and cabbage, no rice · 1 of 2
Cal
~480
Protein
48g
Carbs
16g
Fat
26g
Half the pound of beef and half the cabbage, which is a generous bowl and how Lauren's plate lands. Add a cup of rice for Chris and it runs closer to 680 with 60g of carbs. Most of the fat is the cooking oil, so a lighter hand pulls it down. Ballpark as always.