Beef Stir Fry

Stir Fry is a good dish to make when you have things in your fridge like a half a pepper, a few mushrooms and the end of a zucchini .

When we buy a whole beef tenderloin to cut into steaks, I save the narrow ends for this stir fry.

This recipe can also be used for a pork stir fry.

For the Marinade:

• 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon Montreal Steak Spice

Stir fry ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil divided 
• sliced mushrooms
• sliced onions
• red or yellow pepper strips
• zucchini, cut into strips (discard the soft centre)

Sauce ingredients:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons Hoisin Sauce
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon orange juice
• reserved marinade
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1-2 tablespoons cold orange juice

Method:

1. Marinate meat for at least an hour - not more than 3 hours
2. Drain meat, reserving the marinade, and saute' in 1 tablespoon hot olive oil just until meat is browned.
3. Remove from pan and set aside in a bowl.
4. Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan.
5. Add onions and mushrooms and peppers and stir fry until vegetables are almost tender.
6. Add zucchini strips and meat.
7. Add Hoisin sauce, balsamic vinegar and orange juice and as much of the marinade as needed to make the amount of sauce you prefer.
8. Cover and let cook for 2 or 3 minutes.
9. Mix 2 teaspoons cornstarch with a little more cold orange juice and stir into the sauce in the pan. Cook until sauce thickens. If needed, you can add more cornstarch and juice to thicken it to your liking.
10. Serve immediately over rice or thin noodles.

Tapioca Dream Pudding

Tapioca pudding takes me back to eighth grade Home Ec, one of the first things we learned to cook. More recently, my sister mentioned making it for friends for whom it is a favorite dessert. I just had to go back to it. The lightness in this recipe comes from beating the egg white separately and adding it at the end.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg, separated
• 4 tablespoons sugar, separated
• pinch salt
• 2 cups milk
• 3 tablespoons Minit Tapioca
• 3/4 teaspoons vanilla 

Method:

1. In a 4 cup glass bowl, beat egg white, adding in 1 tablespoon sugar as it gets foamy.
2. Beat until stiff peaks form.
3. In saucepan, whisk egg yolk and 3 tablespoon sugar. Add salt and gradually stir in milk and then tapioca. Let sit 5 minutes.
4. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until mixture comes to a full boil. Remove from heat.
5. Immediately, with hand mixer on low speed, slowly add hot tapioca mixture into beaten egg white OR fold beaten egg whites into hot tapioca pudding with spatula. Add vanilla. 
6. Stir after 20 minutes and scoop into dessert bowls. Serve warm or chilled, plain or with fruit. Yields 3 - 4 small servings

Note- naturally gluten free