Not the usual run of the mill beef and broccoli. Not the one you grew up on. Spicier. A little less “formula” tasting. Not that different. But not the same either. If you are looking for Chinese Canadian (or American) beef and broccoli this is not the recipe for you. If you are looking for something delicious with big South East Asian flavours keep reading.
Beef and broccoli didn’t start out with broccoli
I don’t know if this story is true. So don’t hold me to it. It is believable though. At least to me. It goes like this. Immigrants arrived in North America. They missed the tastes of home. So they did what they could with what they could find. They wanted to make beef and gai lan. Broccoli was the closest thing they could find. And so beef and broccoli was born. That story has been told a thousand times through history. People come. People adapt. Good things happen. New classics are born. Culinary evolution. I make this dish with gai lan. But I also make it with broccolini. I like the gai lan version a little better. But I can get broccolini anywhere. So I did it here with broccolini. Because I’m guessing you can get it anywhere too. Works pretty much the same either way. If you can get gai lan, go for it. If not, don’t worry too much. All good.
Don’t overload your wok
You don’t have the firepower that restaurants have. So there isn’t much point trying to cook this the way they do. If you put too much stuff in the pan it’s going to steam. Your beef won’t brown. Your broccolini won’t get that wonderful smoky char. It just won’t be as good. So stir fry in phases. Cook half the beef. Then the other half. Beef releases water as it cooks. Water is the enemy of brown. It will take you an extra 90 seconds to do this. That’s time well spent. Then cook the onions and broccolini. Really crank the heat. Make sure you have enough oil in the wok. Push it. Hard. You want a bit of char on the broccolini. Then bring everything together. Add the sauce and serve. It’s more work but it works.
Think pad see ew without the noodles
This version of beef and broccoli is like Pad see ew. Without the noodles. And with beef instead of chicken or pork. OK – it’s not that close. But the underlying flavours are similar. Thai flavours. Chinese concept. It works. Which is why ingredients matter so much here. Make this with Chinese soy and Chinese oyster sauce and it’s pretty much Chinese. Thai soy is different. Thai oyster sauce is different. These things matter. You’d be amazed how much these things matter. Of course, adding fish sauce is really different. That’s the sledge hammer here. I love sledge hammers. Mixes things up. But if you like pad see ew think about making this. It’s beef and broccoli. But different. I surprised myself with this one. Try it and see for yourself.
