Homemade Take-Away: Beef with Broccoli

Having a gluten-allergy means that most take-away is off the table for me.  It's a good thing I love to cook, and I'm sure in the long run my waistline and my heart will thank me, but sometime you just want to pick up the phone and order pizza or Chinese without a care in the world.  Thankfully Moo Goo Gai Pan was always my favorite Chinese take-away dish and is the one dish that is actually safe for me.  But man a good Beef with Broccoli, or beef in any of that wonderful sweet, salty, yet mildly spicy brown sauce is sooooo yummy, and sooooooo off limits for me.

But, the day that local snow peas arrived in the store, Valerie began to celebrate in the office because that meant she was making The Pioneer Woman's Beef with Snow Peas and thanks to gluten-free soy sauce this recipe would be within my reach.  So I too grabbed snow peas the the rest of my supplies, tweaked the recipe a bit (I just can't leave any recipe well enough alone), and that night I treated the Mister and myself to homemade Chinese take-away.  It was BETTER than take-away, and I wanted to eat it ALL!  Oh Ree Drummond, you are a ginger angel of food loveliness (which by the way, leave it to a fellow ginger to come up with a recipe that relies on lots of lovely fresh ginger, oh how you rock woman)!  So this meant when broccoli made its way into last week's share, I knew what had to be done...sub out the snow peas and throw in that broccoli!  Let's just say I ate leftovers for breakfast this morning.  Go ahead and judge, I care not!  

So give your favorite Chinese restaurant delivery guy a break tonight, and make your own Beef with Broccoli at home.  I recommend prepping all your ingredients first, as once you start, this recipe goes super fast.  So I always make the sauce, get the meat in it to marinade, and then get my rice started so that's cooking away when I start to cook the veggies.  The sauce for this recipe is a great base, so feel free to sub in lots of different veggies.  I always throw in mushrooms, but think this would be great with sliced carrots, asparagus, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, cabbage, and eggplant.  You can even leave out the meat and make a hearty vegetarian version with lots of veggies.

Homemade Take-Away: Beef with Broccoli 

Ingredients:

1 lb sirloin, flank steak or thin sliced top round

1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce (use gluten-free soy or tamari to keep it wheat-free)

2 Tbsp sherry vinegar

2 Tbsp local honey

2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp corn starch

1 Tbsp heaping, minced ginger

1 tsp heaping minced garlic

Dash of crushed red pepper (optional)

1 head of broccoli, chopped

1/2 lb mushrooms, gently washed & sliced

2 Tbsp scallions, chopped

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 tsp sesame seeds

4 cups cooked jasmine rice

In a bowl, mix together soy sauce through red pepper, making sure there are no cornstarch lumps left, and set aside.

Cut beef into thin strips and add to bowl with sauce.  Allow meat to marinade while you get your rice on to cook, as from here, it's going to go pretty fast.

In a large skillet or wok add oil and heat over high heat.  Not medium high heat, but face melting high heat.  So wear an apron or a riot shield if you're worried about oil splatters on your clothes.

Once oil is nice and hot, carefully add broccoli and mushrooms and cook for about a minute to a minute and a half, stirring continually to prevent any burns.  Once mushrooms have started to brown, transfer veggies to a separate plate.

Using tongs, carefully add in beef and if your skillet isn't large enough, you'll want to add it in stages.  Cook meat for 45 seconds.  Toss in scallions and give everything a quick stir.  Pour in rest of sauce and add back in veggies.  Cook for an additional 30 seconds at most, until sauce has started bubbling.  Remove from heat to prevent beef from over cooking and becoming chewy.  Stir in sesame seeds for an added garnish and serve over jasmine rice.  Should make enough for 4 generous portions.