Beef Stir Fry Over Rice and Blackberry Rocket Salad

As an experiment I tried out cooking at the office today. Amazing stove, very little counter space. The lack of counter space is perplexing to me because there could be plenty if things were put away into drawers, like the tea collection on the counter could become a tea drawer. Perhaps I will take the initiative to make that kitchen more usable through reorganizing and labeling with a label maker.

Onto the food, stir fry is an amazingly versatile dish that is fun to play around with. Have vegans, cut out the meat and add extra firm tofu, have someone who loves mushrooms, pop those suckers right on in, want chicken, no problem, rice noodles make your taste buds sing, in they go. The secret is to cook over high heat with an oil with a high smoking point (I used sesame oil because I wanted an extra bit of chinese flavor, but olive oil would also work) and to constantly stir. What this means is that you prepare everything ahead of time and when the stove is on, just toss everything together and stir it so nothing burns. If serving for only a few people, a wok is a wonderful thing because it keeps the oil at the bottom and allows for very quick cooking without drowning the food in the oil. There are industrial sized woks, but I happen not to have one, so I just used a large pot and made extra sure to stir like I meant it.

Beef Stir Fry Over Rice
Serves 12

Ingredients:
2 Tbs sesame oil
2 Tbs minced ginger
1 clove garlic minced
1.5 lbs beef cut into strips (I found "stir fry beef" but try to stick to thin cut loin if your store doesn't have this)
2 cans water chestnuts, drained
2 cans bamboo shoots, drained
2 cans baby corn, drained
4 handfuls snap peas
3 baby bok choy, chopped
2 yellow bell peppers, seeded and chopped
2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1/3 cups stir fry sauce
1 package of chopped extra firm tofu

Preparation:
1. In a large pot or giant wok, heat oil over high heat. Add ginger and garlic, cook until fragrant.
2. Add rest of ingredients, stirring constantly until the meat is cooked all the way through.
3. Serve warm over rice.


Blackberry Rocket Salad
Serves 12

Ingredients:
2 boxes of rocket
2 packages of blackberries
1 cup sliced almonds
rose vinaigrette to taste

Preparation:
1. Dress the rocket with the vinaigrette so that the leaves are coated, but you salad isn't drowning in dressing.
2. Layer on top berries and nuts.

Broccoli Beef Over Rice with Chinese Salad

Today was a little hectic because I had to prepare 2 meals due to my being out of town for Thanksgiving, leaving tomorrow morning at 6am. For Tuesday lunch I felt like chinese food, so I looked up a recipe for broccoli beef which I will share with you all. One thing to note is that my sauce had some difficulty thickening because cornstarch is not always cooperative with my agenda, but it should work if you let the bits cool enough and mix in the right proportions.

Also whipped together a chinese inspired salad. This salad would also work really well with shredded chicken or shrimp added to the mix, but since the meal was already pretty meat heavy I decided to skip on the animal bits.


Broccoli Beef
Serves 12

Ingredients:
6 Tbs cornstarch dissolved into 6 Tbs water mixed with 2 cloves minced garlic
1 cup soy sauce
6 Tbs brown sugar
3 tsp minced ginger
3 Tbs cornstarch dissolved into 1 1/2 cups water
3 lbs boneless round steak cut into bite sized pieces
12 cups broccoli florets
1 bunch of spring onions chopped
vegetable oil

Preparation:
1. Dredge the beef chunks in the cornstarch garlic mixture.
2. In a bowl mix together the soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and cornstarch mixture and set aside.
3. In a large pot or wok, heat 1-2 Tbs of vegetable oil over medium heat. Cook the beef until there's not more pink showing. Remove the meat and keep warm.
4. In the same pot/wok, heat 2-3 Tbs of vegetable oil and cook the broccoli and onions until the the broccoli has changed to a darker green, about 4-5 minutes.
5. Return the meat to the pot/wok and add the set aside sauce from earlier.
6. Stir and cook for 2 minutes.
7. Serve over rice.


Chinese Salad
Serves 12

Ingredients:
1 large box of mixed greens
2 cans of mandarine orange slices, drained
2 cans of sliced water chestnuts, drained
2 large handfuls of snow peas with the strings removed
chinese inspired salad dressing (I used Girard's Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing)

Preparation:
1. Dress the mixed greens with the salad dressing, making sure that the dressing is well mixed as it tends to separate easily.
2. Layer the orange, water chestnuts, and snow peas on top of the salad so that the heavy items don't all fall to the bottom.