In honor of one of my best friend’s (Jess) upcoming marriage I bring you Filipino Beef Steak, or bistek.
Jess is my former housemate in college. Her family are ranchers and know their cows and beef. On our long drives to and from school on breaks, she would point out the different cow breeds that we saw grazing (I can easily tell you what is angus, holstein, hereford, and brown because of her). Naturally, as a daughter of ranchers, she knows a thing or two about steaks. Even though she wants her beef raw, she loves loves loves Filipino beef steak (something that is generally cooked well done). If my mom hears that she is in town and coming to visit, she makes her this dish. I don’t even get this kind of royal treatment! But I’m glad a kid of ranchers approves of the salty, sour taste of beef steak; it’s legit y’all!
The key to bistek is the calamansi. It can be quite confusing if you’ve never seen calamansi before. But it is considered a Filipino lime/lemon. If you find it, definitely try it! We actually have a calamansi tree. And don’t worry; if you don’t have access to calamansi or calamansi juice, you can use lemon juice.
The marinade is actually quite simple–just soy sauce, fresh calamansi or lemon juice, and onions. It’s the balance that I could not emulate when I was in college. It always ended up being a little too sour or a little too salty.
And I always would forget to marinade my onions!!! The key to get the onions just right is to marinade it in the leftover beef marinade while you are cooking the beef! So simple!!!
Bistek is probably one of my favorite beef dishes, and something you just can’t stop eating. The combination of the salty soy sauce with the sour calamansi and the sweet caramelized onions makes for one incredible dish. You’ll literally be drinking the sauce!
Beef Steak
A salty, sour, and sweet beef dish.
Ingredients
- ~2 lbs. thinly sliced beef sirloin, cut into 1 inch strips
- 2 large onions, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 2 large lemons, juiced
- 2 smashed garlic cloves
- pinch fresh ground black pepper
- 2 tbs. butter
- 4 tbs. oil, canola or vegetable
Directions
- Step 1 In a pan on medium high heat, add oil and butter.
- Step 2 When oil/butter is hot, brown beef in batches. Don’t overcrowd the pan, as this will not brown the beef.
- Step 3 Flip beef after 2 minutes and set aside on a plate after 5 minutes.
- Step 4 Once all the beef is out of the marinade, add onions.
- Step 5 Once beef is cooked, add onions and rest of marinade to pan and cook till soft and translucent and the sauce thickens.
- Step 6 Quickly add beef back, mix beef and onions, then serve over steamed rice.
