{recetas} Beef & Broccoli

Oh. Em. Gee, folks. I made the best dinner last night.

Take-out worthy beef and broccoli. It was delicious! Kid gobbled it up and the Hubs said we should have it more often. Win-win, in my book.

This is kind of a multi-step process, but it's quick and all of the steps are easy.

First things first, the rice. This meal is best served over rice and I find it best to use the rice cooker. You could also use instant rice, but rice cooker rice is so much better!

What you need (for the rice):

• 2 cups rice
• chicken broth (enough to cover the rice, up to the first knuckle on your pointer finger...scientific, I know)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• OR! Instant white rice

What you do (for the rice):

• If you are like us, go to your ice cream bucket of frozen rice and scoop 2 cups into the rice cooker.
• Pour the chicken stock over the rice. Here comes the scientific part. Stick your pointer finger into the pot until you touch the bottom. If the stock comes up to the first knuckle joint, you're good to go!
• Sprinkle in your garlic powder and ground ginger. Both of these are in the beef and broccoli sauce if you want to omit them from your rice. I just like to add an extra little zip.
• Or, you can skip those three steps and make some instant rice. That's up to you.

Okay, part two. Multi-step, you know. We're gettin' fancy up in these parts!

What you need (for the beef and broocoli):

• a flank steak
• a head of broccoli
• 2/3 cup tamari sauce
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic (yep, I buy my garlic pre-minced)
• 3 tablespoons corn starch
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

What you do (for the beef and broccoli):

• Boil water in a medium-sized pot. While this is boiling, whisk together tamari sauce, honey, chicken stock, sesame oil, rice vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and corn starch. I don't know about you, I like to measure all of the ingredients first and have them sitting in their own separate dishes (like a cooking show!) before I add them. Especially the dry ingredients. Once the honey is added to the mix, you'll need to whisk continuously. Otherwise, it gets stuck to the bottom of the bowl and takes longer. Just trying to save you some time!
• Slice your steak really thinly. Think about your favorite Chinese food restaurant. Their beef is sliced nice and thin. Do that. It makes it taste better. Well, probably not, but it looks more like take-out that way!
• Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat and add your beef. Cook it through. Drain it.
• When your water boils, add the broccoli for just a few minutes, and then drain it. Pour some cold water over the top to stop the cooking process. I suppose you could have an ice bath ready. But we never have ice readily available. I like the texture of the broccoli when it has been boiled for a short time.
• Add the broccoli and sauce to the pan with the beef and bring the sauce to a boil. Turn the heat down and let it simmer so the sauce has some time to thicken. I, personally, don't have much patience for this part and let the sauce thicken just a little bit. You can thicken it to your own needs and wants.
• Serve the beef and broccoli over rice. We like to have egg rolls on the side. Just a suggestion.