Andrea-Style Broccoli Beef

This recipe is a mashup between 3 of my favorite Chinese flavors; Broccoli Beef, Sweet and Sour sauce, and General sauce. 

It’s mild, like broccoli beef, but it has a sweetness from the pineapples, like sweet and sour sauce; and a heat from the Gochujang, like General Sauce. It also has orange juice and ginger, so it hits all of the bases for me. 

Rather than traditional Broccoli Beef, I like beef after it has been braised for 4 hours. That makes it like a really tender meatball, and I use the leftover stock to make the very complex brown sauce.

This recipe has 5 parts, but I lay them all out in a simple way for you, and in the easiest order.  

~Serves 8 Generously~

Ingredients:

• 2 pound bag of brown rice. 
• 3 pounds organic grassfed beef. 
• Eight 16.9 ounce bottles of Aquafina bottled water. 
• 2 small cans (6 oz.) tomato paste.
• 4 Tbsp. butter. 
• 2 tsp. salt. 
• 3 Tbsp. fresh minced ginger. 
• 1 whole garlic bulb; peeled, trimmed and minced. 
• 2 large jalapeno peppers, minced (about 3 Tbsp.). 
• 2 Tbsp. Gochujang. 
• 2/3 cup soy sauce. 
• 1 cup orange juice. 
• 2 cans pineapple chunks. 
• 2 Tbsp. all purpose flour. 
• 2 Tbsp. corn starch. 
• 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar. 
• 3.75 ounce can smoked oysters in oil, minced. 
• 1/2 cup red wine. 
• 4 red bell peppers, largely chopped. 
• 4 green bell peppers, largely chopped. 
• 4 heads of broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces. 
• 1 Tbsp. sesame oil. 
• Garnish: 2 bunches Spring Onions, and 16 tsp sesame seeds. 
• Pair with Lindeman’s Kriek Lambic.

Part I

Directions for the beef:

1. The first step is pretty easy. All you have to do is cut your beef into 1 inch squares. 
2. Roll them in your hands a couple of times to form lazy meatballs, then toss them into a 13X9 inch casserole dish. 
3. Fill the dish with 3 bottles of water (or 6 cups), and top it with cheap aluminum foil.
4. Bake in the oven at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 hours. 
5. Remove from oven, and spoon out the meatballs from the stock with a slotted spoon, and transfer them to a separate dish. 
6. Set them both aside.

Part II

Directions for the rice:

1. Now you just have to pour the rice into a 6 quart ceramic cast iron Dutch oven, along with 5 bottles of water (or 11 cups).
2. Add meatballs, salt, and butter as well. Stir. 
3. Bring to a low boil over medium-high heat (about 25 minutes). 
4. Cover with lid and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour. 
5. Remove from oven. Transfer to a 4 quart glass storage container with lid, and allow to cool for 1 hour before storing in the refrigerator until ready to serve. 

Part III

Directions for the brown sauce:

1. While the rice is baking, prep the aromatics for the brown sauce. 
2. Peel the ginger with a spoon, and mince it on a cutting board with a serrated knife, and transfer it to a small bowl for later. 
3. Peel and trim the garlic, and mince all the cloves through a garlic press. Set those aside in a separate small bowl for later.  
4. Rinse the jalapenos. Chop the stem off and use a spoon to scrape out all the seeds. Slice them in half lengthwise, and then slice them into parallel julienne strips. Mince.
5. Open the can of oysters and mince them using the same cutting board and serrated knife. Place those in a separate bowl for later. 
6. Now we are going to do the fun stuff. Transfer the beef stock to a large stock pot on the stove. Turn the heat to medium-high. 
7. In a separate bowl, add the flour, corn starch and orange juice and whisk until combined. Set aside. 
8. Add the red wine to the beef stock and whisk well. 
9. Add the Gochujang to the beef stock (which I will now start calling "sauce") and whisk well. 
10. Add the tomato paste to the sauce and whisk well. 
11. Add the soy sauce to the sauce and whisk well. 
12. Add the vinegar to the sauce and whisk well. 
13. Add the orange juice slurry to the sauce and whisk well. 
14. Allow this to heat up and thicken before proceeding. Whisk regularly. 
15. Now add the pineapples (with juice), ginger, garlic, oysters, sesame oil and jalapenos. Whisk well. Allow sauce to come up to heat (low boil), then turn off heat. 
16. Transfer to a 4 quart glass storage bowl with lid and allow to cool for 1 hour before storing in the refrigerator until ready to serve.  

Part IV

Directions for the vegetables:

1. Cut up the broccoli into bite-sized pieces. 
2. Cut the bell peppers into big chunks and store them in a gallon-sized freezer bag, or storage container with lid. 
3. Trim the roots and tips off of the Spring onions. Cut them in half (lengthwise) and then dice them up. Transfer them to a storage container with lid. 
4. Store all vegetables in the refrigerator until ready to serve. 

Part V

When ready to serve:

1.  Get out all of your meal-planning containers from the refrigerator. 
2. Line a baking sheet with nonstick foil, and pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 
3. In a large bowl, add the following items per person and stir to combine: 1 cup of the rice/beef mixture, 1 cup of the brown sauce, 1/2 cup of red bell pepper, 1/2 cup of green bell pepper, and 1/2 cup broccoli. 
4. Transfer to the baking sheet, not to exceed 2 servings worth per baking sheet, and bake for 30 minutes. 
5. Garnish with 2 stalks worth of Spring onions (per person) and 2 tsp sesame seeds.

Meal Planning Tip: You will run out of vegetables after 8 servings, but you'll still have enough of the rice/beef mixture and sauce to make 4 more servings. After 4 nights of eating this though, I'm so tired of it that I start to question whether it was ever good. My husband assures me that it is. 

1. So I portion out the remainder of the meal, by adding 1.5 cups of the rice/beef mixture, and 1.5 cups of sauce per person to individual glass storage containers with lids, and freezing them for up to 6 months. 
2. When ready to serve, you can either omit the vegetables entirely, and nuke this bad boy for 3.5 to 4.5 minutes. Or, you can defrost it in the microwave and then combine it with fresh vegetables, as per parts IV and V of the recipe.