Cooking International: Peruvian Steak-Frites and Shrimp Fried Rice

I subscribed to Food and Wine magazine on a whim last summer, and I've got to say, it was a great decision. A lot of these types of magazines don't exactly provide useful information; wine out of my price range, restaurants thousands of miles away, that type of thing. Don't get me wrong, that stuff is in Food and Wine, but there are also a lot of extremely useful features!

In May this year, they had a travel issue. It's great that they make me dream about traveling (and eating!) everywhere, but more importantly, they gave some simplified recipes for some international type dishes. The one that I made was the Peruvian dish. It's basically a steak stir fry with french fries tossed in. It's called lomo saltado. Here's the recipe (from the magazine).

Peruvian Steak and Potato Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

1. 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2. 1 teaspoon ground cumin
3. 1 teaspoon ground coriander
4. 1 garlic clove, minced
5. Salt and freshly ground pepper
6. 1 pound skirt steak
7. 1 red onion, halved and slivered
8. Vegetable oil, for frying
9. 8 ounces frozen french fries
10. 1/4 cup sliced pickled jalapeños
11. 1 large tomato, chopped
12. 1/4 cup cilantro
13. Hot sauce, for serving

In a large bowl, combine the olive oil, cumin, coriander, garlic and a generous pinch each of salt and pepper. Cut the steak into 4-inch pieces; slice the steaks across the grain 1/2 inch thick and add to the bowl along with the onion. Let marinate for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 1/2 inch of oil until shimmering. Add the french fries and fry over high heat until golden and crisp, about 3 minutes; drain on paper towels.

Heat a large griddle until very hot. Add the steak and onion along with the pickled jalapeños and stir-fry over high heat until the meat and onion are cooked through and lightly charred, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the tomato and cook until softened and beginning to char, about 1 minute. Add the french fries and cilantro and flip with a spatula to combine. Serve right away with hot sauce.

In a related, but not actually from the same recipe at all, I had my first attempt at making Fried Rice this last weekend. It's from here.  I wanted to make something with shrimp, and foodgawker revealed shrimp fried rice as an option. So check that out there! The cabbage smelled so delicious when it was in the wok. I didn't take any pictures because, well, I forgot. And I think I'm just going to go ahead and focus on the other recipe. Just follow the recipe that I linked! The only thing I changed was that I added some peanut sauce in with the shrimp, and added red pepper flakes to both the shrimp and the end product.