Receta Beef with Broccoli and Fried Rice
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Gai Lan, Chinese Broccoli.I love Beef with Broccoli. It was one
of the first Chinese dishes I ate when I came to New York. Those were the days before Hunan and Szechuan
restaurants took over from their Cantonese forbearers and forever changed the
way our palates perceived Chinese food. In the case of Beef with Broccoli, the appeal
of the dish was in the small pieces of steak stir-fried with crisp Broccoli
florets in a dark, sweet, soy and oyster sauce. But the truth is Beef with Broccoli has little
or nothing to do with true Chinese food.
The Broccoli used, for instance, isn’t close to Chinese Broccoli but
instead was popularized in this country by Italian immigrants. And cattle were far too valuable as beasts of
burden to use as food. Elaborate Chinatown Restaurant CA 1900 San Franscisco
Almost
all Chinese food found in restaurants in this country was adapted to American
tastes early on. The first wave of Chinese
immigration brought miners and railroad workers to California in the 19th
century. Eventually laws were put into
place preventing the Chinese from owning land. “Chinatowns” grew as the Chinese
lived together in what really amounted to Ghettos. It was there that the Chinese opened restaurants
that served mainly the local Chinese populations. San Francisco was the home to sophisticated
Chinese cuisine and some truly luxurious restaurants. But as the Chinese population moved out of California and into
smaller towns, they opened restaurants. Often their owners were self-taught home
cooks. These chefs improvised with both
cooking techniques and ingredients. In the process, they created American
Chinese cuisine to please American tastes. Very often their dishes were
blander, thicker and sweeter than anything on offer in China itself. But their popularity only grew and as
Americans discovered a taste for Chop Suey and Chinese take-out. Ironically, mainland Chinese became intrigued with all
things American includingFortune Cookie, American Chinese in Shanghai
American Chinese once the Bamboo curtain parted.
There are now American Chinese restaurants in China itself. These restaurants import products and
ingredients including Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Skippy Peanut Butter,
Cornflakes and English Mustard Powder.
Beef with Broccoli first appeared on Chinese
restaurant menus in the late 1920s. I’d been looking for a recipe for the dish for
quite some time but not quite that long. I had made versions that left me cold. The beef was tough, the broccoli had lost its
verdant green color and the sauce was wimpy and all but disappeared into the pile
of white rice I’d poured it over. Then I
made two discoveries: Shaved Beef at
Trader Joe’s and a suggestion to cook the beef and the broccoli with leftover
rice from our last Asian dinner delivery. Usually leftover rice lives in our
refrigerator until it is discovered some weeks later inedible. This was a use I could get into. Throw in scrambled eggs and I couldn’t wait
to get started. Shaved Beef is found in Trader
Joe’s meat section. It’s fresh, very thinly sliced rib-eye and bottom round. It
makes the most fantastic cheesesteak sandwich but that’s another post. Here I
lifted the individual pieces out of their container and arranged them on a cutting board. They were ideal. If there’s no Trader Joe’s in sight, I’d use
sirloin, sliced at thin as I could. Get
everything ready first because the whole dish takes under 30 minutes to
make. Here is the recipe:
Recipe
for Beef with Broccoli and Fried Rice
Serves
4 to 6. Takes under 30 minutes.
2
tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
8 ounces Shaved Beef or very thinly sliced sirloin.
1
medium broccoli crown (about 12 ounces), cut into bite-sized small florets
(about 5 cups) 2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce, divided
4 cups cooked brown or white rice, chilled 1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
Freshly ground black or white pepper
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Kosher salt
3 medium scallions, thinly sliced 1. Parboil
the broccoli in highly salted boiling water until it just turns green. Remove
and drain. Set aside. 2. Heat
1 tablespoon of the oil in a large nonstick frying pan or wok over medium-high
heat until shimmering. Add the beef, break it up and cook until halfway cooked
through, about 2 minutes. Add the broccoli, cover, and cook, stirring every
minute or so, until the broccoli is crisp tender and the beef is cooked
through, about 4 minutes total. Add
the garlic, drizzle in 1 tablespoon of the tamari or soy sauce, stir to
combine, and cook for 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl; set
aside. 3. Add
the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the pan over medium-high heat. Add the
rice, remaining 2 tablespoons of tamari or soy sauce, and sesame oil. Season
with pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the rice is heated through,
about 4 minutes. Push
the rice to one half of the pan and add the beaten eggs to the other half.
Season the eggs with salt and pepper, then stir occasionally with a rubber
spatula until almost set, 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Remove the pan from the heat, add the
broccoli and beef, sprinkle with the scallions, and gently fold everything
together with the rubber spatula, breaking up any large pieces of egg. Taste
and season with salt and pepper as needed.