Garlic Beef with Capsicum (Red Bell Pepper) - 3 stars

i made this for dinner last night out of my wok cookbook. (it's actually called The Essential Wok Cookbook - it's a fantastically authentic southeast asian and chinese cookbook.)

it was a really easy stirfry - i marinated the beef in some chinese rice wine, garlic, and soy sauce for ~ 15 minutes. meanwhile, i prepared the rest of the stirfry. the key to making a good stirfry is to have all your stirfry ingredients prepped before starting the stirfry. if you don't do this, your stirfry will end up an abysmal soggy failure.

i sauteed the red bell pepper first, removed it from the wok, and then sauteed the beef in batches and removed from the wok. i made the garlic sauce in the bottom using a fantastic amount of fresh chopped garlic, some chicken broth, chili pepper oil, chili garlic sauce and oyster sauce. oh, and some cornflour to thicken it. i returned the beef and pepper to the wok and tossed until heated through and mixed well.

this stirfry was saucier than some i've made lately, which was great. if there's not enough sauce in the stirfry, the rice it's served over tastes too dry. when i first tasted the sauce out of the pan, it seemed really good... but when i actually sat down to eat a few minutes later, it just wasn't all that flavorful. it had a good spice from the chili oil & chili garlic sauce, but other than that, it was bland. i had to add soy sauce to it to make it more palatable. a good stirfry should not require the addition of soy sauce in your bowl - the stirfry itself should be full of fresh, potent flavors all by itself.

next time, i'd modify the garlic sauce to improve the flavor. :)