Asian-Style Round Steak

The Friday night lights at high school football games. Two trauma cases stayed with me through the weekend. I cooked through them.

Lourdes is 74. She is in the kitchen. She is luminous. Joseph called Saturday. He told me Lourdes calls him every day. He answers every day. The pattern has held for 6 years.

I made bone broth all week. Twelve hours per batch. The stock is the foundation.

The blog post on bone broth got picked up by a Filipino-American newsletter. Traffic doubled for two days. The traffic was the surprise.

Angela came over Saturday with the kids. We cooked. We argued about pancit proportions — she uses more soy, I use more calamansi. We are both wrong, according to Lourdes.

The kitchen window faced the inlet. The inlet was silver in the late light. The light was the inheritance.

The grocery store had no calamansi. I substituted lime. The substitution was acceptable. The acceptable is the working version of perfect.

I made coffee at six AM. The coffee was the start. The start was always the same.

A reader from New Jersey wrote in about her grandmother's adobo, which used pineapple. I had never heard of pineapple in adobo. I tried it. It was strange. It was also good. The strange and the good are not opposites.

I took a walk on the coastal trail Saturday. The light was good. The body was tired but moving.

The Anchorage sky was the Anchorage sky. The mountains were the mountains. The inlet was the inlet. The geography was the geography.

Lourdes called me twice this week. The first call was about a church event. The second was about a recipe variation she had remembered from her childhood. The remembering was the gift.

Auntie Norma called Sunday afternoon. She is now seventy-nine. She wanted a recipe. I gave it to her. She wanted to know how my week was. I told her, briefly. She told me about her week. The exchange took eighteen minutes. The eighteen minutes was the keeping.

I read a chapter of a novel before bed each night this week. The novel was about a Filipina nurse in California. The novel was good. The novel was, in some way, my own life adjacent.

I drove the Glenn Highway out to Eklutna on Saturday. The mountains were the mountains. The lake was the lake. The body needed the open road. The open road did its work.

I sat on the balcony in the cold for ten minutes Sunday night with a cup of broth in my hands. The cold was the cold. The broth was the broth. The body held both.

The neighbors invited us over for a small dinner Thursday. They are an Iñupiaq family — Aana and her grandson Joe. We ate caribou stew and rice. I brought lumpia. The kitchens of Anchorage have always been the small UN. The food is the proof.

The Filipino Community newsletter announced the Saturday gathering. I will be on lumpia duty. I am always on lumpia duty.

I cleaned the kitchen Sunday afternoon. I wiped the stove. I scrubbed the sink. I reorganized the spice cabinet. The cleaning was the small reset. The reset was the marker. The marker said: the week is over, the next week begins, the kitchen is ready.

I read three chapters of the novel Saturday night before sleep. The novel was about a Filipina nurse in California. The nurse was being undone by her work. I knew the unraveling. I had lived the unraveling. I read on. The reading was the witnessing.

The salmon in the freezer is from August. Joseph's catch. The bag is labeled in his handwriting — "for Grace." I will use it next week.

I had been making bone broth all week — twelve hours a batch, the stock always going, the kitchen always warm — and by Sunday I needed something that used that foundation, something that justified the hours. This Asian-style round steak is the answer I keep coming back to: soy, ginger, a long braise, the kind of patience the week had already asked of me anyway. Lourdes would approve. Angela would argue about the proportions. That’s how I know it’s right.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 1 hr 45 min | Total Time: 2 hr | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs beef round steak, cut into 1-inch strips
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1 cup beef broth (or bone broth)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water
2 green onions, sliced, for garnish
Cooked white rice, for serving

Instructions

Make the marinade. In a bowl, whisk together soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, black pepper, and red pepper flakes if using.
Marinate the beef. Add the round steak strips to the marinade, toss to coat, and let sit for at least 30 minutes at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate for up to 4 hours.
Sear the beef. Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Remove beef from marinade (reserve the marinade) and sear in batches for 2–3 minutes per side until browned. Do not crowd the pan.
Braise. Return all beef to the pan. Pour in the reserved marinade and the beef broth. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 1 hour 30 minutes, until the beef is fork-tender.
Thicken the sauce. Mix cornstarch with cold water until smooth. Stir into the braising liquid and simmer uncovered for 5–8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens to a glaze.
Serve. Spoon over steamed white rice and garnish with sliced green onions.

Nutrition (per serving)

Asian-Style Round Steak — The Stock Is the Foundation