Marsha's Pepper Steak

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. sirloin steak; sliced thinly
• 2 green bell peppers, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 bunch (6-8) green scallions, chopped small (use white and green parts)
• 1 medium yellow onion, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 (29 oz.) can diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 cups water (use the juice from the drained tomatoes as part of water)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (peanut oil is best if you have it)
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 Tbsp. instant beef bouillon
• 1-2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp. corn starch
• 4 Tbsp. soy sauce

Directions:

Heat oil in a large skillet until very hot. Add the meat and stir-fry until nicely browned. Add the yellow onion, water, garlic powder, and ginger. Bring mixture to a boil, cover and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the peppers and scallions, cover, and cook about 5 more minutes, or until the peppers are tender. Add the tomatoes.

Combine the sugar, corn starch, and soy sauce in a bowl and whisk together until well combined. Add this mixture to the meat and pepper mixture and bring to a boil. Continue to cook, uncovered, until the sauce thickens. Serve over steamed rice.

Note: We discovered Cubanella peppers, which have the same flavor as the green bell peppers but leave you with no indigestion problems. Just be sure you're getting the sweet variety rather than the hot unless you prefer the heat. They look like banana pepper almost and have such wonderful flavor. You can always use red bell peppers too in order to get the good pepper flavor without the problems. A combination of the two colors look really nice.

Source: This is my youngest daughter, Marsha's recipe for Pepper Steak. It has always been her favorite Chinese Food, and she fiddled and tweaked it until it suited her perfectly. The rest of us would gobble it up too, so she learned to double or triple her recipe if we were having company. This is her basic recipe though.

By Julia from Boca Raton, FL