Name: Beef and Broccoli
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 300 g Beef; 1 head Broccoli; 3 cloves Garlic; 1 knob Ginger; 2 tbsp Cooking oil; 1 tbsp Soy sauce; 1 tbsp Cooking wine; 1 tbsp Cornstarch; 1 tsp Sesame oil; 2 tbsp Oyster sauce; 1 tbsp Soy sauce; 1 tsp Sugar; 0.5 cup Water; 1 tsp Cornstarch

Ingredients

2servings

Beef · sirloin, thinly sliced300 g
Broccoli · about 300g1 head
Garlic · sliced3 cloves
Ginger · julienned, optional1 knob
Cooking oil2 tbsp
Beef marinade
Soy sauce1 tbsp
Cooking wine1 tbsp
Cornstarch1 tbsp
Sesame oil1 tsp
Sauce
Oyster sauce2 tbsp
Soy sauce1 tbsp
Sugar1 tsp
Water0.5 cup
Cornstarch · + 1 tbsp water, slurry1 tsp

Steps

Thinly slice the beef against the grain, toss with the marinade, and rest 15 minutes.
⏲ 15 min
Cut the broccoli into bite-size florets, blanch 1 minute in salted boiling water, then rinse in cold water and drain.
⏲ 3 min
Stir the sauce ingredients together; mix the cornstarch slurry separately.
⏲ 1 min
Heat the oil in a pan over high heat, spread the beef out, and stir-fry quickly until it changes color, then remove.
⏲ 2 min
In the same pan, fry the garlic and ginger until fragrant, then add the broccoli and stir-fry 30 seconds.
⏲ 1 min 30 sec
Return the beef, pour in the sauce, bring to a boil, then stir in the slurry to thicken.
⏲ 1 min 30 sec
Finish with a drop of sesame oil and turn off the heat. Serve over warm rice.

Variations

Chicken and broccoli: Swap in chicken breast for a lighter version.
Shrimp and broccoli: Use shrimp and cook it fast.
Spicy: Add doubanjiang or chili oil.
With mushrooms: Toss in shiitake or button mushrooms for depth.

Tips

Slice the beef thin and against the grain for tenderness — freezing it briefly makes slicing easier.
The cornstarch marinade velvets the beef so it stays juicy and silky.
Cook hot and fast — don't crowd the pan, or it steams instead of searing.
Blanch the broccoli briefly to keep it crisp and bright green.

More detail and the reasons why (4)

"Velvets" is the one word this recipe's own tips never explain. Kung pao chicken uses the same word — "a cornstarch marinade velvets the chicken so it stays moist" — and spends its own page on the starch arriving twice in one pan. What the starch does is what starch does in a sauce, only on the outside of the meat instead of in the liquid: thickening a sauce puts the swelling band at 60-75°C, and a wet film of it on a 2mm slice crosses that band in the first seconds in the wok. It sets into a gel skin, and the meat's water is then behind something.
So it is a coating, and not the kind deep frying is about. The coatings that guide sorts are all there to become crisp. This one is meant to stay soft and stay wet, which is why it goes onto raw meat, is never allowed to colour, and is finished in liquid. The dishes that use the same starch for a crust pay the opposite price: orange chicken notes that "a cornstarch shell is porous, so it starts drinking the sauce", and tangsuyuk says flatly that "the sauce is water, and water softens a starch shell back down."
The slice and the film are one decision, not two. Against the grain and thin is what a screaming pan needs — sukiyaki gives the ceiling from the other side, "past 3mm, thirty seconds will not cook it" — but thin also means a great deal of surface and almost no interior, so there is very little water in each piece and none to spare. A thicker cut would not need the film; this one cannot do without it.
The broccoli is blanched because the two things cannot be cooked together at all. Beef sliced for thirty seconds and a dense floret have no common cooking time, so each is brought to done separately and they only meet at the end. Blanching supplies the rest — arresting the cooking is what the cold rinse is for, and the colour is a side effect rather than the aim.

The basics behind this dish

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