Beef with Lemon Grass

I have this one lonely stalk of lemon grass in my fridge. The thought of making some fruit juice and use the stalk as stirring stick came to my mind. When I visited Indonesia after haven't been for so long, the first place my aunt took me was this Balinese Restaurant and when the drinks came out, each glass had this gigantic lemon grass stalk in the glass (which is very small compared to the stalk, really). Seen celery stalk, umbrella stick, what not, but never lemongrass stalk! I was skeptical on its functionality until I took a sip of the juice and it has a very faint refreshing lemon grass taste to it.

Anyway, I only have bananas and dragonfruit in my kitchen. So, no fruit juice. That was just me daydreaming of cool refreshing tropical juice! ;) This beef dish is really super easy. I don't marinate the beef for very long; being it so thinly sliced.

What:
- 1 lbs flank steak, cut thinly across the grain
- 1 stalk lemon grass, thinly slice the roots part, tough stalk removed
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 inch ginger, grated
- 1/2 small onion, cut to thick slices
- 1/4 cup nuoc nam (fish sauce)
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 8 dried chillies (soaked and once plumped up, cut to half - optional)
- 1 tbsp palm sugar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- splash of water
- dash of black pepper

How:
- Toss together beef, black pepper, lime juice and some of the grated garlic. I just let it stand for about 20 minutes.
- Heat wok with 1 tbsp oil. Toss in garlic, ginger, onion and chillies. Stir until onions are translucent.
- Put wok into medium high heat. Toss in beef, stir quickly. When beef is halfway cooked (about 2 minutes), low the heat to medium.
- Add the rest of ingredients. Let it come to quick boil (beef should be cooked by then).
Note: The way I make it has very watery thin gravy; for thicker gravy, just mix small amount of cornstarch with water, add it at the end, and let it come to quick boil.