Beef with Broccoli

So the other day I was digging through my freezer looking for something inspiring to make for dinner.  I found a little boneless beef tip sirloin roast and I thought, “huh…  what can I make with this…”  I took it out of the freezer to thaw without a plan in mind, but having a place to work from.  Fast forward a couple of hours, I was walking Connor home from school and I was thinking about my friend Jill.  And that thought took me to think about her favourite Chinese dish, beef with broccoli.  And then I thought, “HEY!!  I could make beef with broccoli for dinner!”  I googled some recipes, and decided to go with this one:

Ingredients
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 lbs boneless beef sirloin tips, cut into small strips
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cups broccoli florets, cut into bite sized pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp soy sauce (preferrably the low sodium kind)
1/3 cup water

Method

1. In a small bowl combine the cornstarch, salt and pepper.  Place the beef strips into a mixing bowl and pour the seasoned cornstarch over the beef.  Mix until all of the beef is covered, and none of the seasoned cornstarch is at the bottom of the bowl.  Set aside.
2. In a large pan heat 2 tbsp of the oil.  Add the beef to the pan and stir-fry until just cooked through; about a minute.  Remove beef from pan and cover to keep warm.
3. Put the remaining tbsp of oil into the pan.  Add the garlic, sautee for a minute and then add the broccoli.  Cook until almost done (it should be bright green still; it took my broccoli about 5 minutes to rach this stage).
4. Add soy sauce and water and bring to a boil.  Add the beef back to the pan and stir everything all together.  Allow to cook for about 2 more minutes, until the sauce is slightly thickened.  Serve over rice.

This meal was fabulous!  And it took as long to make as the rice did to cook.  So, 20 minutes all totalled.  I love fast and delicious dinners like this!  Enjoy, I can assured you that we did; immensely!!

Pork with Apples

Tonight I was hankering for something from my youth. And really, how perfect, given that it’s a Sunday and I’ve started this tradition of “Sunday Dinner” right? I know. When I was a kid, my Dad would make pork and apples. Sometimes he made a pork roast and baked apples (they were like apple sauce, but still in slices sorta like you’d get in a pie) and sometimes he would simmer pork chops in apple cider. We always preferred the baked apple sauce thingy… what can I say? It was tasty!

Tonight, I had some pork chops thawing and so here’s what I did to try and re-create the dinners of my youth:

Ingredients
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 apples (tart ones would be best, but I used Royal Gala, and they too were lovely) chopped into chunks
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp maple syrup
4 pork chops

Method

1. Put the butter into a large frying pan and melt over med-low heat.
2. Add the apples and stir to coat with melted butter.  Add in the nutmeg, lemon juice and maple syrup and stir again.
3. Lay the pork chops over the apple mixture, cover the pan and let cook for 10 minutes
4. After the 10 minutes are up, turn the pork chops over and place them onto the pan itself, scooping the apple mixture on top of the pork.  This will infuse the pork with the apple flavour, making it oh-so yummy.
5. Cook for another 5 minutes or so, until the pork is cooked through.  Serve with roasted potatoes and vegetables.

YUM!!!  I will do this again for sure.  And, while I do not pretend to be any kind of a wine expert, I can tell you that we paired this meal with a delicious Inniskillin bottle, called “Brae Blanc” and it was perfect.  It’s a blend of Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay and Riesling.  It was great with the pork.