Luna's Broccoli Beef
Excerpted from The Pepper Thai Cookbook
As soon as Luna was old enough to chew solid food, I was making her this very basic but very delicious stir-fry, which delivers a shocking amount of rich beefy flavor despite its short ingredient list. The secret is the oyster sauce, which adds serious umami, so much so that you won’t even miss the beef if you leave it out. Sometimes I’ll make stir-fried broccoli for the kids and it disappears just as fast.
I call this Luna’s Broccoli Beef because it’s one of her favorite foods, but that is a gene she obviously inherited from John, who might love broccoli more than she does. No matter what age you are, there’s a lesson here. Boiled broccoli? Nobody wants seconds. Stir-fried broccoli? You can’t make enough of it. A little garlic, oyster sauce, and a hot wok go a long way.
- 1 pound skirt, hanger, or flank steak, sliced against the grain into ½ by 2-inch strips
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- Ground white pepper
- 1 pound broccoli (about 2 heads), florets cut into bite-size pieces and stems peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch (optional—it helps make the sauce thicker)
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 6 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
- 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
- Cooked jasmine rice, for serving