Broccoli Beef
Ingredients
1 large Flank steak (8 – 10 ounces per person. Sliced into ½ thick by 1 inch in length pieces)
3 TBS cornstarch
1 large onion (large dice approx. 1-inch pieces)
2 cups of broccoli
2 tbs diced garlic
1 tsp diced ginger
1/2 cup soy sauce (separated into ¼ cup each)
Vegetable oil
Directions:
Using a small bowl, add TWO tbs cornstarch and ¼ cup soy sauce with 3 tbs water.
Mix together and pour over flank steak pieces. Set aside for 30 min.
In another bowl, add remaining soy, diced garlic, diced ginger and remaining 1 tbs cornstarch set aside.
Heat a large wok or pan on high heat with 1 tbs vegetable oil until almost smoking
Generously pepper the flank steak and sauté quickly in the pan until almost done, approx. 3 mins
Remove to a plate and then add another Tbs of oil to the hot pan.
Place onion and broccoli in the pan and cover with a lid for 3 mins, stirring occasionally until broccoli is crisp and bright green and onions just start to turn translucent.
Add the steak back in and pour in the reserved soy/ginger/garlic marinade you set aside.
Bring to a boil and stir to coat the mixture.
Cook one additional minute and serve hot over rice.
Variations – You can add additional veggies with the onions and broccoli or replace those vegetables with others such as mushrooms, green peppers, carrots, soybeans, cabbage, etc. You can also sub the beef with tofu, just prepare according to package directions and use firm or extra firm.
The Story:
For 47 years my family patronized a particular Chinese restaurant, owned by Koreans that called itself the Tai Ho. I have been going there since my father’s store was directly next door back in 1972. When I was at the store we used to go over there for lunch and have Mongolian beef and pot stickers. To me it was the quintessential taste of my childhood. I loved it. I continued to go through my teen and young adult years, even when I moved out of town. When my children were born, they were both taken to the restaurant and brought up with the Mongolian beef. Yes, they did have other things there, but the MB was my favorite and the only thing I wanted to eat there, the same with my children. I knew that beef so well I could tell if it was the father or son who cooked it. I would stop in and bring some for my Father when I visited him. He still loved it as well. For the last 20 years we lived over an hour away and still went every chance when we were close to the area. On December 31st, they closed for good. I cried. My heart literally shriveled up. Never have I had such a visceral reaction as I did to hearing my very favorite thing to eat on this planet was gone. I would have requested that for my last meal.
All that said, you may wonder what this has to do with broccoli beef. Mongolian beef and broccoli beef are two different things. I am working so very hard to replicate my Mongolian beef from childhood. I know I won’t ever get it quite right. I don’t have the seasoned woks or the super high burners to work with, but I want to get close. The first step in that is to find the right MEAT and the right preparation for it. Using flank steak and marinating it in cornstarch is the way to go. This Broccoli beef has the same mouthfeel. I feel that echo of my Mongolian beef and know I’m one step closer to getting it back. It won’t ever be the same, but I will continue to work on it until I get a reasonably close facsimile.