Pepper Steak

First week back in Nashville after Aunt Linda’s wedding. The dorm felt small for two days — my room felt small, the dining hall felt small, the second-floor kitchen felt small — the way places feel small when you’ve just been somewhere that opened up your sense of scale. Tulsa is bigger than I’d remembered. Family is bigger than I’d remembered. Mama’s kitchen is bigger than I’d been carrying in my head. The dorm shrank for forty-eight hours and then it started to feel right-sized again as the rhythm of the week came back. Seminar Monday morning at nine. Philosophy Tuesday afternoon. Dining-hall lunches with Priya at twelve fifteen between her econ class and my history. Sunday cooking.

Dustin came to seminar Monday morning with a small wrapped box for me — a baseball cap his mother had sent up with him from Memphis to give me. The cap was a Memphis Records cap with the small gold lettering across the front, the kind you’d find at Sun Studio’s gift shop or at the original Stax store on McLemore. His mom had bought it Saturday morning before they’d left for Nashville. The cap fit perfectly. I wore it to history Tuesday and Priya complimented it twice.

Sunday I made pepper steak because Dustin had told me Wednesday at lunch in the dining hall that pepper steak was his late grandfather’s favorite dish, and he hadn’t had a properly-made one since the grandfather had died in 2015 of a stroke at seventy-eight. He’d told me about the grandfather in passing, in the way Dustin tells me about people he loved — specific details, no editorializing, just the facts in chronological order — and I’d filed the pepper steak detail in my head for Sunday.

Pepper steak is a Chinese-American stir-fry that lives in the cookbooks of Cantonese immigrant families and in the menus of every American Chinese restaurant from 1955 onward. The dish is built around the marinade and the high-heat stir-fry, and getting both right is the whole technique. The dish is also a thirty-minute weeknight when your prep is done, which is the kind of dinner that fits a college Sunday after a long Saturday of reading.

The technique: a pound of sirloin tip steak cut into thin strips against the grain on the bias (against the grain is non-negotiable for any stir-fry; with the grain on a sirloin tip will give you chewy meat). The strips marinated for two hours in a quarter-cup of low-sodium soy sauce, two cloves of garlic minced, a tablespoon of grated ginger, two teaspoons of sesame oil, and a tablespoon of cornstarch (the cornstarch coats the strips and creates the velvety surface that signals proper Chinese-restaurant pepper steak). Don’t skip the cornstarch. The cornstarch is the technique that distinguishes home pepper steak from restaurant pepper steak, and most American home cooks don’t know about it.

The vegetables: two bell peppers (a green and a red, both for the visual contrast and the flavor difference) cut into wide strips, one yellow onion cut into half-moons, four cloves of garlic minced. The pan sauce, whisked in advance in a small bowl: a quarter-cup of soy sauce, two tablespoons of oyster sauce (oyster sauce is the umami backbone of the dish; do not substitute), a half-cup of beef broth, two tablespoons of brown sugar, a tablespoon of cornstarch slurry (mixed with two tablespoons of cold water).

The stir-fry: a wok (or a heavy carbon-steel skillet, which is what I have in the dorm kitchen) heated to almost-smoking over the highest heat the electric range will produce. Two tablespoons of vegetable oil. Half the marinated beef added, spread out in a single layer, seared without moving for ninety seconds, flipped, ninety more seconds, out to a plate. Repeat with the second half of the beef. Don’t crowd the pan — crowded beef steams instead of sears, and steamed beef in a stir-fry tastes like the failure mode of every American Chinese takeout that’s ever disappointed.

The vegetables in the same hot pan with another tablespoon of oil. Stir-fried for three minutes until just-tender but still crisp. The beef returned to the pan. The pan sauce poured in. The whole thing tossed and stirred for ninety more seconds until the sauce thickens and glazes everything. Off the heat. Served over jasmine rice with a sprinkle of sliced scallions on top.

Dustin tasted the pepper steak at six PM Sunday at the common-room table and got quiet for about three minutes. Then he told me about his grandfather, the cabinet maker in Memphis who had taught Dustin guitar starting when Dustin was seven, who had eaten pepper steak every Sunday for thirty years at the same Chinese restaurant on Beale Street called New China that closed in 2014. The grandfather had died at home in his sleep in May of 2015 at seventy-eight years old. Dustin cried at the dorm table for about ten seconds and then got back to himself. I didn’t say anything. The kitchen had said it.

Cornstarch in the marinade. High-heat stir-fry in two batches. Don’t crowd the pan. Here’s the build.

Pepper Steak

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs beef sirloin or round steak, sliced thin against the grain
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced into strips
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon black pepper, freshly cracked
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 cup beef broth
• Cooked white rice, for serving

Instructions

1. Slice and season the beef. Cut steak into thin strips, about 1/4-inch thick. Season with salt and pepper and set aside while you prep the vegetables.
2. Make the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, cornstarch, and beef broth until smooth. Set aside.
3. Sear the beef. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large cast iron skillet or heavy pan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the beef strips in a single layer — work in batches if needed — and cook 2–3 minutes per side until browned. Remove beef and set aside.
4. Cook the vegetables. Add remaining tablespoon of oil to the same pan. Add onion and bell peppers and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 5–6 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook another 1 minute until fragrant.
5. Combine and simmer. Return the beef to the pan. Pour the sauce over everything and stir to coat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 4–5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens and everything is coated and glossy.
6. Serve. Spoon over warm white rice and serve immediately. This is even better the next day, if there’s any left.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 320 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 14g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 820mg