Beef and Brocolli Stir Fry

The final of the recipes I cooked from one of mum's cookbooks on my stay over there was a fairly simple Beef and Brocolli stir fry from Julie Goodwin's first book "Our Family Table" (ISBN 978 1 74166 968 8; Published by Ebury Press). I've made a couple of other things from it in the past (most notably the extra cheesy lasagna, which is very good), but this is the first one since I've been taking photos of more than just serves of food.

Ingredients

^{Yup, they're certainly ingredients}

1 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
500 grams beef strips
1/4 cup oyster sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce (or light if you don't have it)
2 tsp cornflour
oil
6 spring onions
400 grams Broccoli, florets plus sliced up stalks
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar

Method

• Combine light soy sauce, sugar and cornflour with 1 tbsp water and mix well.
• Add the beef and toss well to give it all a good coating. cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

^{So, it turns out this is a simple recipe which takes a while}

• Combine the oyster sauce, light and dark soy and 2 tbsp water then set aside.
• In a separate bowl, mix the cornflour with 2 tbsp water

^{Of all the things I used at mum's, I need some of these small glass bowls}

• Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok.
• When hot, stir fry the beef in batches until browned. When each batch is cooked, set aside to drain and repeat until all the beef is browned.

^{this was around 6 batches. You may need to add more oil half way through}

• Heat 1 tsp oil in the wok.
• Stir fry the spring onions briefly so that they are tender but still crisp, then add them to the set aside meat.

^{I can follow instructions. Well, maybe. The spring onions might have been a bit softer than intended, but that's how I like them}

• Heat 2 tbsp of oil in the wok.
• Add the broccoli pieces, garlic, salt and sugar.
• Stir fry for about 30 seconds before adding 1/2 cup water and covering for 3 mins or until the broccoli is tender but still crisp.
• Remove from the wok and drain.

^{That's a funny looking wok...}

• Wipe out the wok and add 2 tbsp oil.
• Return everything to the pan and mix well.
• Create a well in the bottom and add the sauce ingredients and the cornfour mixture to it.
• Stir well to combine, mixing in the rest of the pan contents until the sauce covers everything and thickens to your liking.

^{Is it still a stir fry if you don't use a wok? I think it works fine, though it's certainly easier to make that well in the wok}

• Serve over rice

^{white rice in white bowls really doesn't photograph well}

Thoughts

• I removed pretty much all the 'wipe out the wok' steps between each step. The original recipe has you doing that between every step (and all the batches of beef...) and would just use up so much oil and paper towels that I don't think made any difference in how the final product tasted.
• While it worked fine in the chef's pan, a wok would have been a far better pan, but only really mattered at the end where adding the sauce components needed a well. Just pushing everything to the outer edges worked fine though.
• I prefer my veggies a little softer than the recipe would have made them, so I cooked them for a little longer.
• This made 4 serves and was quite a tasty and simple stir fry. I imagine that the sauce would go pretty well with most options of vegetables to accompany the beef, though this is certainly a classic combination.

Previous Recipes

Gary's Lamb and Tomato Curry
Moroccan Tagine
Chicken Paella
Sausage Rolls
Creamy Bacon Fettucine
Simple Chicken Curry