“Fake-out” Beef Chop Suey

I love Chinese food (and by that I mean Chinese take-out– or from the mall food court) but eat it very rarely.  And especially now that I am trying to avoid factory-raised meat.   So recently I decided to try to make my own.  It started out as a beef and broccoli recipe from Allrecipes.com (my go-to recipe site) , but wanting to use more vegetables I turned it into beef chop suey.  And, to my amazement, it turned out exactly how I remember a good beef chop suey tasting like.  Making it at home I could use local grass-fed beef, tamari sauce (to avoid the sodium benzoate preservatives in soy sauce) and control the amount of oil used.

Beef Chop Suey

(Makes 2 generous servings)

1/2  pound beef, cut into thin slices (I used stewing beef, but you can choose a more tender cut)

2 tbsp cornstarch, divided

3 tbsp tamari or soy sauce, divided

1 large clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp sugar

6 mushrooms, quartered

1 crown broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces

4-5 leaves napa cabbage, cut into bite-sized pieces (bok choy would probably be good, too)

1 large carrot, sliced diagonally

1-2  stalks celery, sliced diagonally

1 small onion, sliced

1 cup plus 2 tbsp water, divided

1/2 tbsp sweet chili sauce

2 tablespoons canola oil, divided

Combine 1 tbsp each cornstarch and tamari with garlic and sugar in medium bowl; stir in beef and let stand for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cut vegetables.  Combine 1 cup water, remaining 2 tbsp tamari,  remaining 1 tbsp cornstarch and sweet chili sauce in small bowl.  Set aside.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok or large frying pan over high heat. Add beef and stir-fry until cooked through, remove and set aside.  Clean pan if necessary.   Heat remaining tbsp oil in same pan. Add vegetables and stir-fry 2 minutes. Sprinkle 2 tbsp water over vegetables; cover and cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tamari mixture; cook and stir until sauce boils and thickens, and vegetables are cooked to desired tenderness. Add beef, continue cooking until heated through.  Remove from heat.

Serve with rice or noodles.

This was my first time cooking with napa cabbage– it’s a nice, very mildly-flavoured cabbage.

Now I just need to figure out how to make good homemade sweet-and-sour pork.

I gots a big head.  Feed me more beefs so my body catches up.

What’s your favourite Chinese take-out dish?  Have you ever recreated a restaurant food at home?