Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry 2.0
The month of April is proving to be insanely business for me with spring term at RMCAD starting to wind down, my exhibition at Spark opening and Easter. I was barely able to get the Easter decorations up before the holiday was upon us! Thinking about Easter got me reminiscing about Easters from my past and the baskets that my mother made up for me when I was in college at Purdue! The outcome of one such basket is this recipe, Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry. Sounds strange I know but here is the story and the recipe!
The older I got the more creative my mother became with my Easter Baskets. My junior year in college my mother gave me an Easter basket that wasn’t a basket but rather a wok, filled like an Easter basket with all the standard Easter candies, jellybeans, chocolate bunnies and coconut bird nests (those were my favorites – still are to this day!) In addition, there were Chinese cooking utensils that went with the Wok as well as a recipe, one of my favorites that mom use to make. I made my first Chinese dinner in that Wok shortly after that Easter, in the little kitchenette in my Sorority (Phi Mu) house for my boyfriend at the time, Mike Blanton. That was over 30 years ago, and I still have the Wok and the recipe! I’m happy to say it is one of my girls’ favorite dishes! I have made some alterations over the years based on my cooking experience and knowledge, so I’ve renamed the recipe Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry 2.0
Ingredients:
1 Lb lean beef cut into strips
6 tablespoons of soy sauce
4 teaspoons Cornstarch
1-2 heads of Broccoli
1 bunch of green onions
4 tablespoons of cooking sherry
1 pack of mushrooms
4 Tablespoons of peanut oil
Directions:
Mix 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, 4 teaspoons of cornstarch, 4 tablespoons of cooking sherry in a bowl until blended and pour over the beef and let stand for half an hour.
Heat 2 tablespoons of peanut oil in the Wok. Stir fry together the onions, mushrooms, and broccoli quickly over high heat. Remove to serving bowl and set aside.
Add 2 more tablespoons of oil to the Wok and stir fry the beef until redness disappears. Return the veggies to the Wok and add remaining soy sauce to the Wok. Stir beef and veggies together and serve over white rice. Our rice of choice is Jasmine rice. As a side, I will either serve egg rolls or dumplings with dipping sauce.
And there you have it… not your traditional Easter dinner but then again, we don’t actually eat it on Easter it just has its origins from Easter and my amazingly creative mom!
Bon Appetit!
