Title: Red Cooked Beef with Noodles
Categories: Meat Pasta Main
Yield: 4 Servings

1 1/2	lb	Beef, in ~2" cubes, any
		Random stew meat will do
2		Inches of fresh ginger root,
		Chopped coarsely
1		Bulb of garlic (at least 10
		Cloves), slightly crushed
		And peeled
5		Scallions, 3 cut in three
		Pieces, 2 chopped coarsely
1/2	c	Peanut oil
2	tb	Hot pepper paste (I use
		Sambal oeleck)
		Other hot stuff (optional):
1	tb	Stonewall Salsa Habanero
6		Pickled tabasco peppers,
		Chopped
3		Serrano peppers, thinly
		Sliced
12		Thai peppers, thinly sliced
1	ts	Szechwan peppercorns
		(whole)
1	ts	Sugar
3	tb	Soy sauce (preferably dark,
		Low sodium if you can get
		It)
1	lb	Noodles (preferably fresh,
		But most anything will do)

1. Heat your pan (I use a wok) over a high flame, then put in the peanut oil. It is hot enough to cook when a few small wisps of smoke appear. 2. Toss in the garlic, chopped ginger, hot pepper paste, Szechwan pepper, and other hot stuff. Stir it around for 15-30 seconds, enough to mix it up with the oil and sizzle a bunch. Then put in the large scallion pieces, stir a bit, and then add the beef. 3. Stir-fry the beef for about a minute, making sure that the oil gets at all the surfaces. This should be pretty vigorous tossing. 4. Add the soy and sugar, stir-frying for another couple of minutes. 5. Add water to cover the meat, and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat, cover, and let simmer for at least 1 1/2 hours, until the meat has become very soft. 6. Cook up the noodles. 7. Sprinkle the chopped scallions over the beef and serve.

Notes: a. The best way to serve this is to make it too hot for anybody else to eat, and then consume it yourself over the course of a couple of days. It makes a truly fine breakfast. b. The second best way to serve this is to give each person a bowl of noodles, put beef and sauce over the top, and sprinkle with more scallions if desired. c. I usually transfer from the wok to a good simmering pot. I like to let it go for several hours at low heat. I have used a crockpot several times, but I have found that it concentrates the Szechwan pepper flavor to an unusual degree. d. This recipe can be doubled or tripled easily. Just do the fast stir-fry stuff in multiple batches, unless you have a really powerful stove. And don't simply multiply the peanut oil for the stir-fry; use less. e. This makes good eating cold. It is also a very easy dish to prepare in advance and then heat up (microwave works fine). It freezes fine. f. Szechwan peppercorns are a strange and extraordinary Chinese spice. They are not hot, they are a little bit like black peppercorns, but not much. They have a strange, aromatic fragrance, and cannot be substituted for. Don't even try. If you don't have them, leave them out.

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