Awesome Chinese Stirfry Sauce

This is less of a personal recipe and more of a rave about something that I have loved for about 2 years. It's seriously good stuff!

Nagi at RecipeTinEats lets you in on a Chinese takeout secret--a good all-purpose sauce. This one is awesome, and here you'll find 10 ways to use the sauce.

In order to make this locally, you do need to substitute at least one ingredient. I buy Kikkoman soy sauce for the dark, Tiger brand light soy sauce, and Korean soju for the Chinese wine. The Korean rice wine is available at Uttam.  

Korean Chamisul soju available here

Chinese Takeout: Beef with Broccoli

Chinese food is a cuisine we have found to be quite different here than at home. I am fully aware of the fact that most Chinese food in the West bears little resemblance of the real thing, but still some of those dishes are so darn tasty! Here they are usually some kind of interesting "gravy" with globs of cornstarchiness unless you can find a real "no English" kind of place.

A few months ago my husband wanted to make a vegetable side for an Asian dinner and discovered this recipe for stir-fried broccoli. Since that time we've adapted the recipe to make Beef with Broccoli, and it has become a family favorite. It comes together really quickly so you can make dinner in a flash--especially if you're quick at chopping! I think you can probably use this recipe with any combination of vegetables, too.

Beef with Broccoli

Beef with Broccoli

1 large head broccoli, chopped into 1" pieces

500g beef steaks, thinly sliced

1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
Pinch of salt

1/2 cup chicken stock (OR 1/2 cup water+1/4 stock cube)
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup vegetable oil

In a small bowl, combine cornstarch, sugar, salt, stock, and soy sauce. Heat oil in a wok over medium high heat. Stir fry onions and garlic, stirring continuously, for about 2 minutes. Add beef and fry until cooked through (about 2 minutes). Put onion and beef mixture into a separate bowl. Add broccoli and a few tablespoons of water. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the beef mixture back to the wok and pour the sauce over. Cook over medium low heat for 2 minutes. Stir continuously until sauce becomes thick. Serve over rice. 

Note: To make slicing the beef easier, cut it when it is still just barely frozen. Also, I use a very salty soy sauce so this amount of soy sauce is enough for us, but depending on your soy sauce brand, you might want to check for seasoning right before serving.