Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry with Oyster Sauce

One of the nice things I like about cooking Chinese food is that once the prep work is done, the food literally takes minutes to cook and then dish up. This recipe is adapted from Williams-Sonoma Asian cookbook. Chinese cooking is all about fresh ingredients bought the day you want to make the dish.

Serves 4
500g flank steak
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Sauce:
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon peanut oil
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Combine the above sauce ingredients in a small bowl and add 2 tablespoons water.

125g small broccoli florets
3 tablespoons peanut oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 slices of ginger, minced
1 small onion chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine

Cut the steak into 3 inch long strips (1/4″ thick). In a bowl stir together the cornstarch, salt, baking soda and 2 tablespoons water. Add the beef and stir until combined. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Blanch broccoli until just tender (3-4 minutes), drain and rinse under cold water (drain again). In a wok or large pan over high heat add 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and add beef. Stir fry until meat turns opaque (3-4 minutes). Remove meat from pan. Add remaining 1 tablespoon peanut oil and add onion. Stir fry onion until tender (5 minutes) then add garlic and ginger. Pour in the rice wine to deglaze the pan. When wine has evaporated, stir in the oyster sauce and then add the broccoli and beef. Stir until sauce is well combined and heated through (3-4 minutes). Serve with rice.

The Culinary Chase’s Note: Instead of blanching you can also microwave the broccoli until tender crisp. For color, I added one red chili pepper deseeded and finely chopped. This dish is loaded with vitamins and minerals. Enjoy!