Ah, good old
beef with
broccoli! Simple, quick, tasty, and probably somewhat
healthy*... This is a fairly standard recipe, but you should always feel free to
experiment...
You'll want to prepare everything first, before you start cooking. For the beef, I generally get thinly sliced top round. It cuts nicely into thin strips and is fairly lean, plus it's not too expensive. Trim off any fat and slice up. Coat the beef strips lightly with corn starch. Mix the soy sauce, brown sugar, wine together. Once you've got everything cut up and ready, heat your wok (or skillet) over high heat with about a teaspoon of sesame oil (just enough to coat bottom of the wok).
Now we're ready to cook. Toss in the beef strips and stir fry for about 3 minutes or until it is cooked. Remove meat and set aside. Next add in the garlic and ginger and allow to cook for about 30 seconds. Add in the broccoli, carrots, and scallions and heat for about 30 seconds. Add the water, and cover the wok for about 3 minutes to allow the veggies to steam. Remove the cover and stir fry until all the water is evaporated. Add the beef, and Soy Sauce/Brown Sugar/Wine mixture and stir fry for about 1 minute or until everything is hot.
Serve with rice, this should serve 4 normal portions, or perhaps 2 hungry people...
* There are three main bad things in this dish, soy sauce, beef and oil. Oil, as you know, is pure fat. If you use about 1 teaspoon of oil here, that's about 5 grams of fat. Not bad, so you might not worry. But, if you're going all out, you can also use garlic or other flavored Pam and get rid of that fat. The oil doesn't contribute much to this dish and is mainly used to fry the meat a bit, so you can use Pam and probably not notice the difference.
With the soy sauce, you're on your own. I always get reduced sodium, but even that still has a lot of sodium in it, which is bad if you have high blood pressure or heart disease. All in all, the amount used here is about 10% of the suggested daily amount per serving, so if you normally eat a low sodium diet, not a huge deal.
Lastly, the meat. Top round is pretty lean, especially if you trim it well. I say go for the meat. If you really want to cut down on fat and cholesterol though, go with turkey instead. Turkey is pretty healthy and it works well with this dish. Or if you are a vegetarian, you can try some seitan or tofu.
Note: I like garlic, if you're not fond of it you might want to cut back to 1 clove.