Friday, July 2, 2010

broccoli beef

broccoli beef
photo by ree drummond of pioneerwoman.com

if there is chinese food to be ordered, broccoli beef or sweet and sour chicken are my A#1 top orders.  and if i can get them in a dinner combo, i am a very happy girl!

i have shied away from trying to make broccoli beef myself because...well...at first i wanted it to be this magical thing i only ordered at a restaurant.  and then it was because i saw recipes with ingredients that i couldn't possibly believe would be used for more than one recipe--and where does one even find oyster sauce?!?  well, one finds it between the soy sauce and the sesame oil in the chinese food section of your run-of-the-mill grocery store.

this recipe is originally by jaden hair of steamykitchen.com .  i had tried her sweet and sour grilled chicken and liked it quite a lot (i have yet to tweak it to my personal tastes, so stay tuned for some later-date post on that).  that gave me confidence in her cooking and actually finding oyster sauce plus the anxiously-awaiting bag of frozen broccoli in my freezer basically begs for me to try this out.

for fantastic step-by-step photos, check out pioneerwoman.com (another great site for tasty, tasty cooking and great food photography).

my only change to this recipe was to double the stir fry sauce (because, well, i like sauce).  i also added a tablespoon of cornstarch to sauce instead of a teaspoon to the marinade.  the original sauce came out rather watery, so i wanted to goop that up a little.  oh, and i used stew meat--because it's what i already had on hand.

so if you want to increase your green veggies with a great, and really rather low-cal, recipe, try this out!  you won't regret it.
broccoli beef
adapted from pioneerwoman.com who got it from the steamy kitchen cookbook


1 pound thinly sliced steak (the recipe recommends top sirloin or flank--i used stew meat)
1 1/2 - 2 pounds broccoli, frozen okay
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced garlic

marinade:
1 1/2 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp oil (can be vegetable or olive or peanut or whatever---ooh! would be amazing with sesame)
black pepper to season

sauce:
3 Tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp rice wine (or dry sherry)
2 tsp balsamic vinegar (or Chinese black vinegar)
1 Tbsp cornstarch

in a bowl or baking dish, combine the ingredients for the marinade.  add the beef, toss the meat until coated, then let marinate for 10 minutes at room temperature.

in a small bowl (ramekin works), whisk together the ingredients for the sauce.  set aside.

steam the broccoli by your method of choice.  this could be done in a microwave or on the stove.  drain.

in a dry saute pan large enough to hold everything, set the pan on high heat and when hot, add the olive oil.  swirl to coat the pan.  add the steak strips, keeping them in one layer--turn them after about 30 seconds (you don't want to overcook them).

pour the sauce into the meat.  stir to combine.  simmer until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.  add the broccoli and toss all the ingredients to coat.

serve alone or over rice.

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