In the spirit of the Chinese New Year of the Pig, I decided to make beef, OBVIOUSLY.
There are many recipes for beef broccoli online; mine is what’s worked best for me when I’ve made this. I add a few more vegetables from what’s generally used (which kind of makes the ‘broccoli’ part a bit redundant) but I find that the reason Chinese cooking can be so healthy is that it’s a quick and easy way to add loads of veg.
Ingredients
- 300-350g beef strips (flank/skirt steak works best and are cheapest but you can use rump steak)
- 2 tbsp cornflour
- half a tsp Chinese Five-Spice
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
- 1 medium onion
- 3 peppers (I used one green, one red, one yellow)
- 300g tenderstem broccoli
- 85ml (a quarter of a cup) of water
- 1 tbsp shaoxing rice wine
- half a tsp brown sugar
- 0.25 a tsp white pepper
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp + 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- Noodles or Rice to serve
Put the cornflour and five-spice on a plate and mix together. Add the beef strips and coat in the mixture.
I love my cute Kilner jars 
Heat some oil in your wok. I use spray coconut oil but groundnut oil or vegetable oil would work fine. At this point, I want to point out I do not own a wok. This is partly because I fear it wouldn’t fit in my pan drawer (oh, imagine!) and partly because I have an induction hob so finding a non-stick wok that’s magnetic is problematic! I live in hope. One day. One day…
Add your beef strips to the wok and fry until browned slightly – a couple of minutes, tops. Remove from the wok and set aside.
Add some more oil and fry the onion for 1-2 mins. Throw in the garlic and ginger and stir-fry for a further minute.
Add the water to de-glaze the pan. Stir everything together then add the rice wine, soy sauces, sugar and white pepper. Stir to combine.
Add the beef back to the pan along with the peppers and broccoli. Mix everything up so that the vegetables are glazed. If you have a lid, put this onto your wok and let steam for 4-5 minutes. If you don’t, (like myself!) just lower the heat and let cook for a further 5 minutes.
Serve on a bed of rice or noodles and enjoy!
I thought I’d mention one of my must-have gadgets in my wee kitchen, which is my Spanish garlic/ginger grater. I got this at a food festival a while back and it’s by far better than any garlic crusher I’ve used and is a lot safer than a metal grater. I find with modern garlic crushers, they waste more than they crush. This little thing leaves you with the thinnest slither of ‘skin’ when you finish mincing garlic or ginger. Oh and it’s also pretty!
Basically you use the ‘peeler’ by putting your garlic clove in it and rolling it on your worktop and the peel comes right off with no bother.
To grate the garlic or ginger, you rub it on the plate against the grain and it squishes right down until you’re left with just the skin.
You then use the little brush that comes with it and go with the grain and it basically collects all the grated garlic or ginger.
I clean it by putting washing-up liquid on the plate and scrubbing it in by using the brush so it’s easily cleaned. You can buy the plate here.
Thanks for reading!
Sutz x
Made by Sutz 