Pineapple Beef Stir Fry

The Christmas lights still up in February because no one has the energy to take them down. A Code Blue Wednesday morning that we did not save. I stood in the parking lot for fifteen minutes before I got in my car.

Lourdes is 75. She is slower. She still cooks. She still tells me to find a husband even though I have one. Joseph said something funny Sunday on the phone. I do not remember exactly what. The funny is the brother.

I made lechon kawali Saturday. The pork belly, the brining, the deep fry, the crackle. The kitchen smelled of hot oil for two days.

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

I called Lourdes Sunday night. The call was the call. The call was always the call.

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

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 to ask if I had a recipe for a particular merienda from Iloilo. I did not. I said I would ask Lourdes. I asked Lourdes. Lourdes had it. The chain.

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.

A blog reader sent me a photograph of her grandmother's wooden mortar and pestle, used since 1962. The photograph was holy. I wrote her back. The writing back is the work.

Pete and I had a long phone conversation Tuesday. We talked about the family — his and mine. The talking was the keeping.

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

I checked email at the kitchen table while the rice cooked. There were one hundred and twenty unread messages. I closed the laptop. The unread can wait.

The light was good Saturday morning. I sat on the porch with a cup of coffee and watched the inlet for forty minutes. The watching was the small therapy. The therapy was free.

I took inventory of the freezer Sunday. The freezer had: twelve quarts of broth, eight pounds of adobo in vacuum bags, six pounds of sinigang base, fourteen lumpia trays at fifty rolls each, three pounds of marinated beef for caldereta, and a small bag of pandan leaves Tita Nening had sent me. The inventory was the proof of preparation. The preparation was the proof of love.

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.

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

I had a long phone call with Dr. Reeves on Wednesday. We talked about pacing and rest and the way the body keeps a log of what it has carried. Dr. Reeves said, "Grace. The body remembers. The mind forgets. The cooking is the bridge." I wrote the line down. The line is now on a sticky note above the kitchen sink.

It was the New Jersey reader who started it — the one who wrote in about her grandmother’s adobo with pineapple. I tried it skeptical and came out converted, which felt like the theme of the whole week: the strange and the good arriving together without apology. This pineapple beef stir fry is where I landed after that, a weeknight version that keeps the sweet-savory combination but moves faster than an adobo braise — right for a week when the body was tired but still had to feed itself something worth eating.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs beef sirloin or flank steak, thinly sliced against the grain
1 1/2 cups fresh or canned pineapple chunks (drained if canned)
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium green bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 medium yellow onion, sliced into wedges
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons neutral oil (vegetable or canola), divided
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons pineapple juice (reserved from can, or fresh-squeezed)
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
Cooked white rice, for serving
Sliced green onions, for garnish

Instructions

Make the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, pineapple juice, oyster sauce, brown sugar, cornstarch, and black pepper until smooth. Set aside.
Sear the beef. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large wok or heavy skillet over high heat until shimmering. Add the beef in a single layer — work in two batches if needed to avoid crowding. Sear 1 to 2 minutes per side until browned. Transfer to a plate.
Cook the aromatics and vegetables. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan. Add garlic and onion and stir fry 1 minute until fragrant. Add bell peppers and cook 2 to 3 minutes until just tender but still with some bite.
Add the pineapple. Add the pineapple chunks and toss to combine. Let them caramelize slightly, about 1 minute, without stirring too much.
Finish with sauce and beef. Return the beef to the pan. Pour the sauce over everything and toss to coat. Stir fry 1 to 2 minutes until the sauce thickens and clings to the beef and vegetables. Add red pepper flakes if using.
Serve. Spoon over steamed white rice and garnish with sliced green onions. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pineapple Beef Stir Fry — The Strange and the Good Are Not Opposites