Beef and Broccoli

Hello, my name is Missy, and I'm a slacker.  My dear friend Julie (hi Julie!!), emailed me today to encourage me to post the next recipe.  She called me a slacker.  I'm so glad she did. It made me smile, laugh, and race to my camera to download this recipe.  So please, feel free if you read this, to leave me a comment telling me to get my butt into gear.  It's a burden Julie shouldn't have to shoulder on her own. :)

This beef and broccoli recipe is one of my top three favorites out of all of my mom's recipes.  When I was growing up (and even now, I admit) I did not care for broccoli at all.  My mom would cook the meat and leave my portion out before adding in the onions and broccoli.  It was such a small thing; but it was just another way she showed me her love.  I was so blessed to have her for a mom, friend, and role model.

I'm not sure how "traditional" this recipe is in Asian cuisine, but I think it's super tasty and a quick fix for those busy nights.  If you are really ambitious, you can even slice your beef, mix the marinade, and freeze the beef in the marinade.  Pull it out the day before you plan to cook it and it will thaw in the marinade making it an even quicker meal for you to cook the next day.  Whatever you do, feel free to play with the recipe and enjoy! :)

Here's what you'll need to gather for this recipe:

1 pound steak (I usually use a London broil cut), broccoli, onion, sugar snap peas, soy sauce, brown sugar, cooking sherry, garlic, ginger, cornstarch, and canola oil.

First you'll need to cut your steak.  It will be really, really helpful to your jaw muscles if you cut your steak thinly across the grain.  Cutting across the grain instead of with the grain causes the steak to be much more tender.  For a thorough (and quite entertaining) explanation of why this works, check out Alton Brown here and forward to the 2 minute mark.  You'll thank me.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nevGqdtYoFA

Are ya back?  Was it educational and entertaining?  Yeah, that Alton Brown is one smart cookie.  So back to our steak.  My grain was running from edge to edge on the short side of the steak.  (Top to bottom as you're looking at it.)  So I cut it into 3 manageable pieces.

Then I gave each piece a quarter turn and cut across the grain.  Just like Alton taught me.  I'm such a good student.  (Not to mention I never look at garden hoses the same way!)

When you finish, you'll have a nice pile of steak slices like this:

Next, in a bowl mix together the soy sauce, brown sugar, sherry, garlic, ginger, cornstarch and a 1/4 cup of water.  Give it a good mix...

and add in your beautifully sliced meat.  Let that sit for at least ten minutes...or feel free to make this in the afternoon and let it marinade for a few hours.  The longer it marinades, the more the flavor will soak into the meat.

While that's marinating, cut up your broccoli and onion into bite sized pieces.  My mom only used broccoli and onions.  However, since I'm not a big fan of broccoli (and trust me, I'm being diplomatic) I also throw in some sugar snap peas or snow peas if I have them.

When you're ready to cook, heat a tablespoon of oil in your pan or wok.  Add half of the steak, reserving the marinade for later.  Cook over high heat until it's cooked all the way through.  Remove that from the pan and repeat with the other half of the steak.

Mmmm.  This is the point when you should taste test one (or five) of the pieces.  It's all about quality here.

Once your meat is done and set aside, heat another tablespoon of oil and stir fry your veggies for a minute or two.  Then add a 1/4 cup of water and put a lid on the pan.  Let the veggies steam until they are crisp-tender.  Remove them from the pan.  (You can just drop them right on top of the meat.)

Add the reserved marinade to the pan and bring it to a boil.  Let it boil for a few minutes, then add the meat and veggies back to the pan.  Stir and cook for a minute to warm everything back up.

How yummy is this?  Serve this over rice or noodles and enjoy a yummy dinner that's almost as easy and ordering take-out.  You can switch up the vegetables as your family desires; I've used green pepper instead of the broccoli and added water chestnuts for a little more crunch.  This is a great recipe to play with.

I hope your family likes this recipe as much as mine does.  Enjoy!!

Beef & Broccoli

1 lb. steak, sliced thinly across grain
1 bunch of broccoli, cut into bite size pieces
1 onion, cut into wedges
1 cup sugar snap peas
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
3 Tbsp. cooking sherry
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cornstarch
1/4 cup water
3 tbsp. oil

Marinate steak in mixture of water, soy sauce, sugar, sherry, garlic, ginger, and cornstarch at least 10 minutes.  Drain well, reserving marinade.  Heat 1 tbsp. oil in skillet or wok.  Add steak slices, half at a time.  Stir fry over high heat until cooked through.  Remove from skillet and repeat with remaining steak.  After steak is cooked and set aside, add broccoli, onion, and sugar snap peas to skillet.  Stir fry 1-2 minutes.  Add 1/4 cup water and cover, steaming until veggies are crisp-tender.  Remove from skillet.  Place marinade in skillet and bring to boil.  Boil, hard, for 3 minutes.  Return meat and veggies to skillet and stir fry with marinade to heat through.  Serve over rice or noodles.  Enjoy!