Ocean Broccoli Beef

By RoketJSquerl

Here is the dish that launched a thousand lunch specials back in the day in Huntington, and energized office workers to stand in the rain for half their lunch hour, just so they could get a taste of Huy’s amazing, sweet, sour, hot, salty and oceanic sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 pound top round beef, thinly sliced on the bias into pieces 1″ wide by 2 1/2″ long
• 1 tablespoon Shao Hsing wine or dry sherry
• 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tbsp. black rice vinegar (or balsamic)
• 2 tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. Shao Hsing wine
• 2 1/2 tbsp. sugar
• 3 tsp. chili garlic paste
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1/4 tsp. sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced (about one cup)
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 1 head garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 pound broccoli florets
• 1/2 cup baby carrots, thinly sliced on the bias
• 1 tablespoon Shao Hsing wine or dry sherry

Preparation

Step 1

Toss the beef with the wine, oyster sauce and cornstarch and allow to marinate for at least twenty minutes, but no more than an hour.

Mix together the next nine ingredients–from the black pepper to the cornstarch–in a cup, stirring to remove all the lumps from the cornstarch. Set aside.
Preheat wok over high heat until a thin ribbon of smoke spirals up from the metal. Add peanut oil and allow to heat for thirty seconds. Add onion, and cook, stirring, until it turns light golden brown. Add ginger, and keep cooking for another minute. Add meat, and spread out in a single layer in the wok. Allow to cook undisturbed for a minute or two, or until the beef browns on the bottom, and then stir and fry until most of the pink is gone from the beef.

Sprinkle the garlic and soy sauce over the beef and keep stir frying for another thirty seconds. Add broccoli florets and baby carrots and sprinkle the wine over, and stir fry until the meat shows no red, the broccoli is deep green and tender-crisp and the carrots are tender-crisp–about a minute and a half to two minutes.

Add the sauce ingredients to the wok, and cook, stirring, until it turns into a dark brown, fragrant glaze.

Remove wok from heat and scrape contents into a heated serving bowl or platter. Serve with steamed rice.