Broccoli and Beef Stir Fry

I barbecued a steak the other night and had a good sized piece left over. Usually, I'll turn leftover steak into either fried rice or burritos, but I had a nice bit of broccoli as well, so opted for a stir fry combo. I combined a few different recipes, based on what sounded good and what I had around. You could, of course, use raw meat and stir fry a little longer, until cooked through.

leftover cooked steak, about 1/2 pound
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs sherry

1/3 cup water
2 tsp cornstarch
4 teaspons soy sauce
1 Tbs sesame oil
2 tsp minced ginger
1 clove garlic, minced

about 1 pound of broccoli

3-4 Tbs oil, divided

Slice the meat into 1/4" thick strips of bite sized pieces. Put in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 Tbs of soy sauce and sherry, mix together, and let sit for a quick marinade.

Slice the broccoli into florets. Slice any thick stems into 1/4" pieces.

Mix together the cornstarch, water, 4 tsp soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic. If you want it spicy, add some red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp or so.

Heat 2 Tbs of oil in a skillet over medium high. When it's hot, cook the beef in it, stirring frequently. Cooked meat will only take a minute or two. Raw meat should cook in 3-4 minutes. Remove the meat.

Add the other 1-2 Tbs oil and then cook the broccoli 2-3 minutes, until softened a bit. Put the meat back in the pan. Reduce the heat a bit, pour in the cornstarch mix and stir together. Cook 2-3 minutes.

Serve with rice.

In Which Half a Frozen Already-Cooked Pork Roast Comes to the Rescue!

Working a lot these days and the menu planning thing has fallen by the wayside. I typically finish up about 6 and am often cooking while watching my laptop for IMs and emails. Several clients are in heavy-duty push mode. Last night was one of my brain-dead nights. Hungry children were doing homework and I was staring in the frig and pantry, thinking. I can also do burritos or chicken quesadillas and everyone's happy. I thought I might quickly cook up some chicken, but remembered the half a pork roast I had in the freezer and decided to make chili verde. Cheater Chili Verde since I start with already-cooked pork.

I put the roast in the microwave on defrost and set about gathering everything else. From the pantry I pulled out a can of green chilies and a can of refried beans and grabbed half a bottle of green salsa from the frig.

Once the roast was defrosted, I chopped it up into small pieces and set it to simmer with the chilies and green salsa. I filled the bottle of salsa about halfway full of water and shook it to get the last flavor out and dumped that in as well. Sprinkled some garlic salt in it, then some garlic powder and cumin. I left this simmering for 20 minutes or so, maybe 30 minutes. Turned it up a bit at the end to evaporate more of the liquid.

From the refrigerator, I pulled out some cheese, sour cream, flour tortillas, and lettuce.

Heated up the beans, grated the cheese, heated the tortillas and dinner was ready!

They tasted great last night and the leftovers were good for lunch today!