BEEF & BROCCOLI STIR FRY

My husband made this Bon Appetit recipe the other weekend and it was fantastic. Unfortunately, he never actually follows a recipe (unless Julia Child wrote it) and can’t (or won’t) remember what he did. However, I sneaked a few peeks and it seemed like he basically followed this recipe so I’d trust it. The one thing I noticed was that he used Gin instead of Sherry in the sauce. You might want to up the liquids on the marinade so there’s more sauce in the end.

8 ounces top sirloin or flank steak, cut into 1/4-inch-thick strips
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Sherry (or Gin)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon oriental sesame oil
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled, minced

2 cups broccoli florets or baby broccoli*

1 tablespoon peanut or other vegetable oil
2 cups Chinese pea pods, trimmed
6 green onions, cut into 1-inch-long pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced
1 teaspoon cornstarch

Combine first 7 ingredients and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

Cook broccoli in small pot of boiling salted water until almost crisp-tender, about 2 minutes; drain. Rinse under cold water to cool. (*NOTE: If you use baby broccoli – which you can find in farmer’s markets now in early spring – you can use most of the stem, just cut off the really woody end, and you can skip the blanching bit.)

Heat oil in wok or heavy large skillet over high heat. Using slotted spoon, transfer beef to wok, reserving marinade. Stir-fry beef until just no longer pink, about 2 minutes. Remove beef from wok. Add broccoli, pea pods, green onions and red bell pepper. Continue stir-frying until vegetables are just crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Stir cornstarch into reserved marinade. Pour marinade over vegetables in wok. Add beef and stir-fry until liquid boils and thickens, about 1 minute.