I'm thrilled with this recipe - it actually turned out. I almost followed the recipe as written (which could explain all my other cooking disasters) and it was beautiful as well as great-tasting. It's from a taste of home cookbook (Chinese Cooking, Pare 2003), and from my experience all the recipes in these cookbooks end up great.
The trick with doing a stir-fry is to have all ingredients ready to go into the pan before you start cooking anything. If you're going to stir-fry something correctly, you should have your pan smoking hot - and that doesn't leave time to peel and chop veggies. So save yourself the annoyance of ordering pizza and try to avoid the burnt food - have it all ready to go first.
3/4 cup of orange juice
1 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 to 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 lb steak, sirloin or blade (I used a round steak, sliced very thin across the grain), sliced in thin (3mm or 1/8 inch) slices across the grain of the meat
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp fresh grated gingerroot, OR 1/2 tsp ground dried ginger
1 clove garlic, minced, OR 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp cooking oil (another one)
1 medium sized red or yellow onion, halved and chopped
2 medium carrots, sliced very thin
2 cups broccoli florets (about one small head of broccoli)
1 tbsp finely grated orange peel
1 medium orange, cut into segements and halved (optional)
Stir first five ingredients together in a cup or bowl, and set aside. Cut beef, if not already cut. Sprinkle the beef with a bit of salt, and toss with the garlic and ginger.
Heat wok or large frying pan until very hot - add 1/3 of first amount of oil once the pan is hot. Stir fry beef in three batches, letting the pan heat up again between batches (about 30 seconds, once the beef has been removed from the pan).
Add the second amount of oil to pan, and stir fry onion and carrot - about 3 minutes, or until slightly tender. The veggies should still be crisp, as they will be cooking longer. Add broccoli and orange peel, and continue stir-frying until tender. Add beef and orange segments, if using. Stir the cornstarch mixture, then stir into beef mixture until boiling and thickened. Serves about 4 - very nice over rice.
