Grilled Beef Strips

I'm always looking for ways to make a little go a long way, especially when it comes to red meat. For one thing, satisfying a family of five with steak can get expensive. For another, too much red meat isn't healthful.

One way we get a lot of enjoyment out of a modest amount of meat is to either stir fry or grill strips with a highly flavorful marinade. Today being the 4th of July, we're in the mood to fire up the Weber.

I like doing a marinade inspired by the slightly sweet and salty Korean bulgogi (grilled strips of meat, often thinly sliced ribeye) using the best steak deal I can find. We've used sirloin, but to be economical, I keep an eye out for what my supermarket calls "tip sizzler steak" (shown in photos). It's a boneless steak that I can often pick up for less than $4 a pound. I've also used something the supermarket calls "tip steak cap off."
We serve it with some Thai-style cucumber salad, a napa slaw-salad with a very mild dressing barely hinting of kimchi, some Japanese-style radish and carrot quick sweet pickles and white rice.

Korean Style Beef Strips Recipe
Serves 4 to 6

INGREDIENTS

1 pound sirloin or tip steak (an economy cut)

3 Tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon rice wine
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons sesame seeds, toasted preferred
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 large clove garlic (or 2 small cloves), chopped
1/4 medium onion or 1 shallot, chopped or grated
1/4 pear, grated
1 teaspoon sriracha or gochujang chili sauce

PREPARATION

1. Place beef in freezer for half an hour to an hour to get firm before slicing into thin strips, across the grain as much as possible. (In my freezer, the steak needed about an hour to firm up.)

2. Combine rest of ingredients and pour over beef in baking dish or in a gallon size zip-close plastic bag. Make sure all slices are well coated. Let marinate 1 hour.

3. Beef strips can be seared/grilled in a pan atop the stove over medium-high heat or skewered and cooked on an outdoor grill to desired doneness. When I seared them indoors in a pan, they took less than 1 minute per side and were slightly pink in the middle. When my husband cooked them on our Weber grill, they took about 2 to 3 minutes per side and had just a barest hint of pink inside. They remain tender if not overdone.