Beef with Broccoli
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Beef and marinade
- 360 g flank or rump steak, sliced thinly against the grain rounded
- 15 ml water rounded
- 1 g bicarbonate of soda, tenderiser; rinse off after 30 minutes rounded
- 8 g cornflour rounded
- 10 ml light soy sauce rounded
Brown sauce
- 250 ml water or beef stock rounded
- 22 ml oyster sauce rounded
- 22 ml light soy sauce rounded
- 15 ml dark soy sauce rounded
- 15 ml Shaoxing wine rounded
- 16 g cornflour rounded
- 6 g sugar rounded
- 1 g Chinese five spice powder, a pinch only, it disappears into the background rounded
- 1 g ground white pepper rounded
Stir-fry
- 600 g broccoli, cut into florets, stems peeled and sliced rounded
- 30 ml neutral oil rounded
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped rounded
- 8 g fresh ginger, finely chopped rounded
Method
Method
- Tenderise the beef. Mix the slices with the water and bicarbonate of soda, leave 30 minutes, then rinse thoroughly and pat dry. Toss with the cornflour and soy sauce.
- Blanch the broccoli and shock it. Boil the florets 90 seconds, then drop them straight into iced water. Drain very well. Blanching separately is what keeps them green and firm, and it stops them steaming water into the sauce later.
- Mix the sauce in a jug, cornflour last, and stir again before use.
- Sear the beef and remove it. Very hot wok, half the oil, beef in one layer, undisturbed 60 to 90 seconds until browned, then toss briefly and remove while slightly underdone.
- Fry the aromatics. Rest of the oil, then garlic and ginger for 20 seconds until fragrant but not coloured.
- Sauce and thicken. Pour in the stirred sauce and bring to a boil, stirring, until it turns glossy and thick enough to coat a spoon, about 1 minute.
- Return everything. Add the beef and broccoli, toss for 30 seconds just to heat through and coat, and serve immediately with rice.
Variations
Same sauce, same method, swapping the vegetable.
- Beef with vegetables. Replace the broccoli with 600 g of mixed vegetables, carrot, celery, onion, peppers and mushrooms, cooked hardest first. No blanching needed for these.
- Beef with baby corn and mushrooms. 200 g baby corn, halved lengthwise, and 250 g sliced mushrooms browned dry first, plus a handful of snow peas.
- Chicken with broccoli. 400 g sliced chicken thigh, velveted the same way but without the bicarbonate of soda, which chicken does not need.
- Beef with green beans. 400 g green beans blanched 2 minutes. For the properly blistered restaurant version see chicken or beef green beans.
Notes
- Blanch and shock the broccoli, always. Broccoli cooked in the wok releases water, dilutes the sauce and turns olive drab. Ninety seconds in boiling water and a plunge into ice is the whole trick.
- This sauce is the house brown sauce and it is worth knowing on its own. It is the base under a good half of the menu, and the recipes for black bean and Szechuan versions are variations on the same idea.
- A pinch of five spice is the secret ingredient in a lot of restaurant brown sauce. More than a pinch and it tastes of liquorice.
- The bicarbonate of soda must be rinsed off. Thirty minutes, then rinse properly.
Ingredient substitutions
- Oyster sauce substitutes with vegetarian mushroom oyster-style sauce for a slightly lighter result.
- Dark soy sauce provides the colour. Without it the sauce is beige; use extra light soy and a teaspoon of molasses if you must.
- Shaoxing wine substitutes with dry sherry, or stock plus a splash of rice vinegar.