Apologies

So my many viewers   For my faithful few viewers I would like to apologize for not posting in quite sometime. Shortly after my last post we received orders to move to Japan. Not knowing how long it would be before I could see my family again, we decided to take a trip to visit my mommy, daddy, and the rest of my large family. We enjoyed the beach, rock Disneyland until my children passed out on Main Street, ate as much Mexican food as humanly possible, and made some AWESOME memories. For anyone who has moved with the military knows the process varies from company to company. Since we were on recruiting and not located on or near a base this was an annoying, difficult, pain staking, educational experience. We have been in Japan since January and in our house since February. Our stuff arrived in March and we have been slowing unpacking. Taking all of this into account our lives have been a little upside down. So to make it up to you, I am posting pictures of the lunches I have made out here and a recipe for broccoli beef my neighbor shared with me. I tweaked it a little... Her recipe called for what I thought was a lot of wine.

I have two versions of this recipe. One recipe has to marinade overnight and the other just needs to marinade for a couple of hours.

Overnight marinade: 

4 tsp cooking oil
4 Tbsp of Japanese soy sauce 
2 Tbsp of dry white wine or sake 
1-4 tsp sugar or more. Taste after each tsp to make sure it isn't to sour. Depending on the wine or sake it may be a little sour.  

Couple of hours marinade:

4 tsp cooking oil
4 Tbsp of Japanese soy sauce 
2 Tbsp of lemon juice or any other acidic juice 
1-4 tsp sugar or more. Taste before adding the meat if it is really sour add some more sugar. 

The differences between marinades is lemon juice or any other acidic juices will cause the meat to become tough after a couple of hours. I don't like using the white wine because I don't use the bottle before it goes bad. If you like wine or plan to make a variety of recipes using white wine it may work for you. Being overseas I can't find small bottles of wine.

The remaining ingredients are

2 tsp cornstarch
4 Tbsp oyster sauce
 2 Tbsp cooking sake or cooking wine

4 tsp cooking oil
4 tsp garlic
2 tsp ginger

3/4 lb flank steak
As much broccoli as you would like we use about 1 1/2 lbs


1) Cut the flank steak diagonally against the grain about 1/2 inch thick.

2) Mix all the marinade ingredients together and place in a glass or plastic dish. Add the sliced meat and toss. Cover and marinade overnight or for 2 hours. Take out of the refrigerator and mix with cornstarch. Let the mixture rest on the counter while you finish the next steps. 

3) My preferred method to bring a small amount of water to boil and steam the broccoli. If you prefer to blanch the broccoli then you may do so. Here in our house we prefer crunchy broccoli. My neighbor likes it  noodle limp. Cut broccoli florets and place aside while the water heats up.  Cook according to your preference and set aside. 

4) Mince the garlic and ginger. I grate the ginger using a ginger grater like this one.

5)  Heat a skillet or wok with cooking oil. Stir fry the garlic and ginger for 45 seconds before adding the sliced beef, stirring frequently until just cooked. I like mine medium well. 

6) Turn off the heat and quickly mix in the oyster sauce and cooking sake. Toss in the broccoli and you're done. It is a really easy recipe that as become a regular dish in our house. I like the version with lemon juice better. You will have to taste the marinade before you add the meat. I have had some lemons that weren't too sour and 4 tsp of sugar was too much. Other times I've had lemons so sour it strips the enamel off my teeth. For my foodie friends you'll notice this isn't flank steak. My HD bought the wrong one and I didn't notice until I went to make dinner.