beef and broccoli stir-fry

Brian Lagerstrom

VERY excited to try out the new wok with this recipe! The last time I made beef and broccoli stir-fry, it came out so poorly. I was convinced that the reason was because stir-fry's such as this need high temperatures that only a wok can reach in order to cook properly.

To my delight, the dish came out much better this time around, and the wok was lots of fun to use. You can viscerally see how much hotter the wok is than a typical skillet, and the meat and veggies both start cooking as soon as they hit the hot oil. I still have a lot to learn as far as wok cooking goes, so there are some things I'll do differently in the future.

Some notes about this particular recipe:
- I really like the stir-fry sauce. The addition of Chinese cooking wine adds dimension to the flavor. Might be nice just to keep a jar of this sauce on hand in the fridge, then add the sauce as needed whenever making this stir-fry.
- I could go for more spice in this stir-fry, so I may add chili garlic paste to the sauce in the future.
- I prefer the simple method for meat velveting that recipe tin eats provides over the marinading step Brian gives here. Then again, adding the marinade (without baking soda) to the beef after it's been velveted and rinsed worked well. But most of the flavor comes from the sauce, not the marinade.
- For future reference, 1.25 lbs beef and 20oz broccoli is a good meat-to-veg ratio.
- Sugar snap peas could also be a good veggie here.
- If you have any around, scallions make for a nice garnish.

Some notes about wok use:
- It will be helpful to have squeeze-y bottles of high heat oil and water on hand when you use the wok.
- Make sure that things like sauce and cornstarch slurries are in containers that make it easy to gradually pour them into the wok from the side, as this seems important for giving the sauce the right consistency.
- It feels wrong to use metal tongs on the wok... maybe investigate what utensils are standard for wok cooking.