My Mom's Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

I tried this recipe today I liked it, but I have some suggestions that I think make it better.
First, when you saute the broccoli, instead of putting the garlic in the marinade, this is the place to first expose the garlic to the food. So I recommend removing the garlic from the marinade and adding it to the initial saute of the broccoli. When you heat the oil, include the garlic and then saute the broccoli in that.

Second, the recipe asks you to steam the broccoli in plain water after the saute. I recommend that you replace the 1/2 cup of water with chicken or beef broth, and hold off on the steaming. Instead, take the cornstarch and instead of putting it in the marinade, mix it with the broth and instead of steaming the chicken, after you cook the beef, place the sauteed broccoli in with the beef and then slowly add the broth and cornstarch mixture. The heat will thicken the cornstarch and broth, and the flavors will mix, and the additional saute in the beef mixture will finish cooking the broccoli. So instead of having bland broccoli mixed with the beef (as in the original recipe) the broccoli will pick up more flavor from the marinade when cooking with the beef and the marinade. This will also deglaze the pan and the food will pick up all the goodies from the beef saute. Instead of cleaning all that stuff off the pan in the sink after the meal, it will go where it belongs - into the meal.

My two cents.

P.S. I like the cinnamon. I might try 1/8 teaspoon rather than 1/4 next time. It just needs a hint.

I used a hanger steak instead of the flank steak. Needless to say it was very tender & flavourful. The sauce was perfect however, I will add fresh ginger or hot peppers next time. Again, WOW....loved it!

OMG.............this recipe was a HUGE hit! WOW! Kudos to the chef! I am a very picky person & this was a hit with me & my guest! I am going to try it with fresh Ginger next time.......... Again, WOW!

Served this as in a lettuce wrap ~ made the broccoli smaller ~ a winner at the family dinner table! Thank you.

Made this exactly as written for dinner tonight and it was delightful. Such a simple sauce with great charachter. Seved alongside some steamed brown rice and fried egg rolls. Thanks so much for sharing!

This seems deceptively simple yet the flavors are complex and delightful. I added some thinly sliced red pepper and then some chiffonade Thai basil at the end....because I have to mess with every recipe (!) My SO polished off the entire pot. Will be making frequently I think. Thanks for sharing. Your mom rocks!

Great recipe! I made exactly as specified and loved the flavors!

Hello! Thank you for sharing this recipe! I made it tonight and my husband loved it. The secret ingredient really adds something special to this dish. I think my mother in law also uses cinnamon when she makes this dish (and I could never figure out what that flavor was!).

I do have a question...when I stir fried the beef, I feel like it released a lot of blood that made the sauce seem foamy and congealed in a weird way. You know that brown foamy stuff that comes out when you boil shabu shabu meat? Well that was in the sauce. What did I do wrong and what do you suggest I do to prevent this next time? Thank you!

I made a batch of seitan last night and was looking for something to do other than just slice and pan fry it (not that there's anything wrong with that). This sounds great. Marinading now. I substituted five-spice for the cinnamon. I'll report back with results later.

Just made it with chicken, added ginger to the marinade, and added bok choi at the end to have more greens. Turned out great. Thanks for a wonderful, easy dinner!

I just made this...and the cinnamon seemed a bit strong...I would do this again, but do less cinnamon. I also used sherry...but think rice wine would be better. It was easy, the marniade was not difficult, andit had a good flavour.

I dint have sake or rice wine. I used rice wine vinegar and it worked out fabulous and family said it was a keeper. Next time I will use the sake. Great recipe!

It was fabulous. Thanks!
By the way Japanese sake worked fine.

A definite keeper!!! Used sherry instead of rice wine. I also doubled it since I'm feeding a pack of wolves here but only had leftovers for two lunches. This will definitely go into the rotation ;-)

I asked for rice wine at whole foods and was informed that all sake is rice wine. Now I'm getting the sense this isn't right but you didn't specify a kind of rice wine... Can I use the sake?

Yum! This was fab - many thanks Joy. I made a few tweaks to accommodate allergies (no cornstarch, no sugar and used avocado oil.) Served on top of cauliflower fried "rice." Lovely meal.

Just to clarify, when you cook the meat, you're not really searing it, right? Like mine was kind of boiling in the liquid. (??)

Ooops, just realized that the recipe calls for rice wine, NOT rice wine vinegar. I don't have rice wine, so the vinegar will just have to do.

Gratitude to you and your mother for such a great recipe. I really enjoyed reading the story behind this dish--thank you for sharing this gift with all of us!
I made the dish last night, subbing seitan for the beef and sodium-free homemade veggie broth for the water and it was a delight. My husband raved and my two small children gobbled it up. Thanks again!!!

This was slightly underwhelming, maybe because I only marinated the beef for thirty minutes. I also found it a little hard to tell when the beef was done because the brown sauce camouflaged the meat, so maybe the problem is also that I accidentally overcooked the beef a little. I followed the recipe as written, though I used a big cast iron wok instead of a large flat-bottomed pan. I can see myself cooking the beef more easily in a large pan with the strips laying in the sauce instead of bubbling in it at the bottom of a wok. I didn’t think it would make that much of a difference though! Oh well.