Easy Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

What you see above is a totally unplanned shot of our lunch last week.
I wasn't planning to shoot anything that day but when I plated the meal it looked photogenic and I had beautiful early afternoon light streaming through my kitchen windows that was just perfect.I had to click.

It all happened too fast,with this dish. I had almost half an hour to cook lunch before I dash out the door to pick my hungry kids. A quick search online brought me this recipe which I was satisfied with as I had just the right ingredients,beef and broccoli..tada..

Now it didn't take me long to cut the beef into thin long slivers, I had already got it thinly sliced from the butchers. One thing you'd want to keep in mind, is get your meat or fish cut/sliced beforehand  at the butchers , fishmongers or supermarkets. If you already know how you want it cut for the dish,get it done that way so you save a lot of time with the prep work. The beef is cut to thin slivers as this will help to cook faster .

I was elated as it came together into this finger-lickin-good meal in a relatively short time compared to my usual Sri Lankan fare which would take upto more than an hour sometimes to cook. I'm not very fond of soya-sauced meals but I would definitely cook this once or twice a month for the taste and ease. This is a keeper. Do you have any keepers for emergencies ?

Easy Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
(adapted from here)

500 g beef slivers
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon soya sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1tsp minced garlic
salt

2 tablespoon oil
4 cups broccoli florets
½ red capsicum thinly sliced
1 small onion chopped
1 teaspoon ginger minced

4 tablespoon soya sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour
½ cup water
Red pepper flakes
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Mix together the cornflour,water, soya sauce, brown sugar, minced garlic and salt to taste as shown in the first half of the ingredients list.
Add beef and toss. Keep refrigerated for about 15 minutes until prepare the vegetables.
In a large skillet or a wok on medium high heat,stir fry beef in 1 tablespoon oil until the beef is cooked. Remove and keep warm.
In the same pan stir fry broccoli,capsicum ,onion and ginger in the remaining oil for about 4-5 minutes.
Add salt and check seasoning.
Return beef to the pan.
Combine the soya sauce, brown sugar, cornflour, water till smooth as listed in the end of the ingredients. Add to pan.
Add red pepper flakes.
Cook and stir for 2 minutes.
Serve warm over rice.