Chinese stir fry beef and tenderstem brocolli with noodles

Chinese New Year is just around the corner, I believe many of you who are celebrating it must be busy "spring cleaning", baking cookies, decorating houses with auspicious items and etc. For me, "spring cleaning" - tick, baking-intend to, decorating with auspicious item - could be tough, I can't even find ang pow packets here. Indeed, the Chinese New Year has all it do's and don't. I would rather spend my energy to create some nice recipes to whip out on Saturday, the eve, for friends to enjoy. And of course to inspire people who reads my blog to try out the recipes and enjoy them too.

For those who know me well, I'm not a keen beef meat eater. Maybe my mum did not train us to eat beef since we're young as she herself has allergic towards beef, and hence beef is not something common on our palette. However I did try a stir fry beef noodle and it did change my opinion on this rarely eaten meat for me. The red meat taste is not overwhelming and is so gorgeously tender, and yes it's acceptable for my taste department. I started out to like this stir fry beef and now it's a love affair. This is a simple recipes and I believe in no time you'll love it too. It will be a lovely noodle dish for Chinese New Year rather than the traditional longevity noodles. :-)

Chinese stir fry beef and tenderstem brocolli with noodle
Ingredients (serve 4)

• 200 gm lean pork fillet-thinly sliced perpendicularly to grain
  
• 300 gm egg noodles/spaghetti- I used spaghetti here
  
• 4 cloves garlic-finely chopped
• 1 packet of tenderstem brocolli (200 gm) / Chinese Kailan
  
• 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
  

Marinating ingredients for beef

• 1.5 tbsp light soya sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
• 1 tsp of ginger juice
  
• 2 tsp of corn flour
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp of dark soya sauce/caramel sauce
  
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce (optional)

Noodle sauce

• 300-400 ml chicken stock
• 1/4 tsp of white/black pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp of light soya sauce
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce (optional)
  

1. Marinate the beef with marinating ingredients for 30 minutes.
2. Boil a pot of water, once boiling, blanched the tenderstem brocolli for 30 seconds and remove. Then add in spaghetti to cook. Follow the spaghetti packet instruction, i.e if 15 minutes require to achieve al-dente, drained after 12-13minutes.
3. Heat a wok on high heat. Add in a tbsp of vegetable oil. Once it's hot, add in the garlic and lightly brown. Then add in the beef, lay thinly over the wok and let is slightly caramelised, this will take about 1 minute or so. Then flip over and stir fry for another minute. Do not overcook as you want your beef to be just tenderly nice. Remove to a plate.
4. Add in another tbsp of oil onto the wok, throw in the green and stir fry quickly to nicely coat the vegetable with oil. This will take about a minute. Remove to a plate.
5. Then pour in the noodle sauce, once it start simmering, turn the heat to medium. Add in the spaghetti and stir, let it absorb the liquid. When the liquid is almost absorbed, turn off heat, add in the beef and brocolli stem and mixed well. Served hot with pickled green chillis.