Beef and Broccoli

I was looking for a beef and broccoli with a nice sauce. Most tend to be either over salty or kind of gummy due to too much soy sauce and starch.  I found a nice sauce base start here and then worked it to what I needed/wanted.

Beef and Broccoli

• ginger, grated - about 2 tablespoons
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed/minced
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• brown sugar - about 2 tablespoons
• ground beef - 1 pound
• broccoli, chopped - about 1 - 1 1/2 cups
• sesame seeds - 1 tablespoon, toasted
• 1 - 2 tablespoons oil/butter
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 1/2 cup green onion, sliced finely
• 1/4 cup thai basil (optional), chiffonade

1. In a pot, mix ginger, garlic, soy sauce, hot water and sugar.  put it on a back burner on med heat, simmering. 
2. In a large sauce pan, toast the sesame seeds.  Once toasted, place to the side.
3. In the same sauce pan that the sesame seeds were toasted, place the cooking oil/butter to heat.  Once hot, add diced onion to season the oil/butter.  Once the onion is browned, take a slotted spoon and leaving the oil in the pan, place the cooked onion into the sauce. 
4. After all the onion has been moved to the sauce pan.  Add the ground beef to the sauce pan and brown.  
5. Add the broccoli to the sauce pan, cook.
6. While broccoli is cooking, puree the sauce.  Once the broccoli is cooked through, add the pureed sauce.  Mix well.  Add the green onion and thai basil.  

Serve - on rice, noodles or right out of the bowl.  Can add cashews or peanuts as garnish as well for a crunch. 

Chicken stir-fry with cashews

We have some awesome CSA's.  Tomato Mountain, which provides us huge amounts of vegetables.  And, Meadow Haven Farm that provides us with all our meat.  Now, just to find a beer CSA. :)

I have something almost as good - a honey who buys me great beers.  This go, he bought home a lovely Belgian Farmhouse Ale called 'Vielle Provision Saison DuPont'.  It went surprisingly well with the ginger, honey, Asian flavors.

Now, our veg CSA is on a Asian vegetable kick - so we have been getting lots of Asian vegetables.  So, in the last two weeks we have gotten - Vitamin Green, Bok Choi, Tokyo Bekana, Yukina Savoy.  And, to top all that off - Kale!  Two kinds, no less. Red Russian (which I used for this dish) and Lacinato.

So, we had a lot of greens in this dish. But, you can use whatever you have on hand.  Don't you love stir-fry's?  As long as you have some ginger, honey, garlic and soysauce/tamari - you are good to go.

I also like to use lemon grass - it gives a nice citrus flavor without the added acidity of lemon or lime.  But, if you don't have lemon grass - you can use either or to brighten up the dish.

Chicken Stir-fry with cashews

1 pound chicken (breasts or mixed) cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 pound vegetables (various greens)
1 handful green onions or chives, chopped
1 handful garlic scapes, chopped (if you have them)
2 tablespoons ginger powder (or 1 inch fresh, minced)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup tamari (or soy sauce)
1 piece lemon grass (or a teaspoon of citrus)
a handful of raw cashew nuts
coconut oil - or a fat to cook


In a bowl, mix ginger, garlic, tamari, water, honey.  If you are using dried lemon grass, add to the bowl with hot water instead of regular water.  Once the water has cooled, toss in the chives and garlic and scapes.  Add the chicken - and allow to marinate while you are cutting up the vegetables.

Strain out the chicken - placing the sauce in a sauce pan to thicken.

Heat a pan with coconut oil.    In the hot pan, add the chicken a bit at a time - and give it a quick fry.  Ideally, you want it to brown up.  But, some-times that doesn't happen for me.  Just make sure not to over cook it.  Once cooked - place in a bowl to the side.  Add the vegetables into the pan you cooked the chicken in, stir it up until it has wilted.  Add back the chicken and mix.  At this point, your sauce should have thickened nicely.  Add sauce to the chicken and veg.

In a separate pan (or in the oven ) brown the cashews.  I do this in a dry pan until the cashews are nicely brown but not burnt.  Put the chicken dish in a bowl, toss in the cashews. serve.