"BEEF SALPICAO"

I still remember going out to dinner with my friend Gloria in the 90's, ordering Beef Salpicao over garlic fried rice with a side of 2 fried eggs, and a bottle of San Miguel Super Dry Beer while we watched a live "Jazz band performance" in one of the Jazz bars in Makati.

Hahaha!

Beer+Salpicao+rice+eggs+ jazz music = perfect after a tiring day of work!

(Those were the days when I still wasn't monitoring yet my cholesterol.)

But don't get me wrong, I still eat Salpicao (and have rice, eggs and beer with it) once in awhile. BUT this time, I cook it myself, just to be sure it doesn't have too much salt (and has no MSG either!) and is not cooked with one cup of cooking oil! There are recipes of salpicao that require "liquid seasoning" (Knorr, Maggi...) as part of the ingredients. I do not use that, because if you really want your salpicao to be MSG-free, just stick with salt as your seasoning.

Well, I can say my Beef Salpicao is always a winner whenever I cook it (ask my husband).

Just follow the step-by-step instructions I have here - no shortcuts ok - and I assure you it's gonna be a big hit!

The thing about Salpicao is you need lots of rice when you eat it (aww!)...and so I suggest you serve it with veggies on the side together with rice, just so you won't be tempted to ask for another scoop of rice.

I just love garlic and I use lots and lots of garlic in my salpicao...and I even use some toasted garlic slivers as toppings sometimes.

[CHICHAY TIP: But for people who do not like garlic as much as I do, you may cut the garlic in half instead, and don't mince it, so you can pick the pieces out from the dish right before you serve it. The beef salpicao is perfect with toast bread as well. Try it with toasted french bread...yummmm!!!]

- CHICHAY

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"BEEF SALPICAO"

(Stir-fried Garlic Beef)

What You Need:

• 1 lb beef tenderloin, cut into 1/2 inch chunks (tender-cut strips are ok too)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, cut thinly (slivers) for toppings
  
• 2 tbsp soy sauce mixed with 2 tbsp water, 1 tbsp oyster sauce
  
• 1 tbsp butter
  

Marinade:

• 8 cloves garlic, minced (more if you like)
• 1/2 tsp Koshers salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 3 tbsp oyster sauce
• 3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tbsp juice of lemon
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 tsp olive oil
  

Prep:

-Combine olive oil, oyster sauce, soy sauce, the minced garlic, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika in a bowl. Marinate beef chunks in the mixture for a minimum of 2 hours in the fridge.

-Before cooking, add the lemon juice to the marinated beef, mix well, and then strain the marinade from the beef.

How To:

- Heat some oil on a pan, and saute the beef pieces

-Keep stirring for a 2-3 minutes until beef pieces are browned evenly.
- Remove from heat and transfer to another dish, set aside.
- On the same pan, heat up the butter and sautee the thinly sliced garlic until golden brown (not burned), and set aside in a separate container, leaving the garlic-flavored butter on the pan.

- Add in the mixture of soy sauce, water oyster sauce to the butter on the pan, simmer for a minute or two.

- Stir in the cooked beef for 2 minutes and turn off heat, and transfer to the serving dish immediately.

Top the salpicao with browned garlic strips.

Serve with rice and fried egg, or a side of sauteed bell pepper and onions.

[CHICHAY TIP : Cooking time should be about 10 minutes or less to keep the beef tender.]