Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

This is a versatile stir fry that can use virtually any protein (e.g., fish, chicken, lamb, pork) and vegetable combination. The sauce can be used as a base to create many different stir fry combinations - or can modified to create other types of stir fries such as Mongolian Lamb/Beef.

Variation 1: Standard Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

Variation 2: Black Pepper Beef with broccoli, onion and red capsicum (bell pepper)

Variation 3: Mongolian Beef

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry Recipe

Ingredients

Stir Fry

Beef: 300g, sliced thinly. Best to use a cut that will cook quickly such as flank steak or oyster blade.
Bi-carbonate Soda: 1 teaspoon (optional)
Broccoli: 1 head, florets divided and the stalk peeled and sliced
Other vegetables (e.g., onion, capsicum): 1 cup (optional)

Sauce

Soy Sauce: 1 tablespoon
Oyster Sauce: 1 tablespoon
Chinese cooking wine: 2 tablespoons
Ginger: 1 inch knob, sliced
Garlic: 1 clove, finely diced
White Pepper: Pinch
Chilli, birds eye: 1, sliced (optional)
Corn starch: 1 - 2 tablespoons

Method

Tenderising beef (Optional)

Slice the beef thinly against the grain and place in a bowl. Add the bi-carbonate soda and enough water to make a thick slurry. Leave in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Take the beef out of the fridge, rinse well with cold water and drain. Add the corn starch to the beef and mix well.

Stir Fry

If you didn't tenderise the beef, simply cut it thinly against the grain and prepare all of your vegetables.
In a wok, heat some oil and fry the ginger and if using, chilli, onion and capsicum. Transfer these ingredients to a separate bowl once softened.
Heat the wok to high, add more oil and fry the beef in one or two batches. This will depend on the size of your wok and the strength of your burner. If you cannot maintain a high heat and sizzle, opt for cooking the meat in two separate batches. Cook the meat until it is browned, but not fully cooked.
Deglaze the wok with the Chinese cooking wine and stir for 30 seconds. Return the ginger and other ingredients to the work. Add in the broccoli, soy sauce, oyster sauce and pepper. Add a little more water if all the sauce is evaporating and stir until the broccoli is just cooked.
Serve with steamed rice.

Stir fry variations

There are a few nifty variations that really allows the base recipe to take on an entirely new life.

Protein: The beef can be substituted with pork, lamb or chicken. If you wish to substitute with fish, you can omit the step where you add the bi-carbonate soda and leave in the fridge for 30 mins. After cutting the fish, coat in corn starch and you will be ready to fry the fish.
Additional ingredients: You can also:
- Chilli: Add more chilli with the ginger if you like more heat
- Sesame oil: You can add a drizzle of sesame oil into the stir fry just before it has finished cooking
- Spring onion: You can freshen the stir fry with sliced spring onion to serve
Stir fry flavour variations:
- Mongolian Lamb / Beef etc: Substitute the soy sauce for dark soy sauce and add 1 tablespoon of hoisin sauce
- Black Pepper Beef: Add 1 tablespoon of black pepper sauce
- Five-spice: You can add a 1 teaspoon of five spice powder with the corn starch when it is added to the protein.