“Very few stir fries can be converted into a slow cooked version without compromising flavour or texture. Beef and broccoli was made for it.” Have you noticed that when you order Chinese that the meat is always incredibly tender? It’s not because they are made with expensive fillets. It is because of a technique used to tenderise the meat called “velveting”. All you do is marinate the meat in cornstarch and sauces. But even with velveting, you can’t disguise cheap beef cuts because stir fries are cooked quickly over high heat so the meat is still quite tough. And if you use an expensive cut of beef, it will be tender but it won’t be meltingly tender. The solution? SLOW COOKING. Not an authentic method, but the ingredients in the recipe are. Time savvy? YES. Cost efficient? DOUBLE YES. “I took an authentic Chinese Beef & Broccoli recipe and adapted the quantities and directions to suit slow cooking and freezing.” There are 2 basic steps to make this Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli:
- Throw the beef and sauce ingredients in the slow cooker. Then let it cook on High for 3 hours, or pressure cook it for 40 minutes on High.
- Toss in lightly cooked broccoli. Just steam or boil broccoli until it is “tender crisp” (which means the broccoli is just cooked, still bright green and crisp). I once saw a recipe where the broccoli was slow cooked with the beef. Please do not be tempted to try this! The broccoli gets overcooked to the point that it practically turns to mush and it’s horribly brown. The extra few minutes it takes to toss in freshly cooked broccoli is worth it. “Thie entire meal can be made ahead and frozen, including the cooked rice.” This Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli recipe can also be made ahead and refrigerated or frozen. I didn’t realise that broccoli could be frozen until I researched it for this recipe! It actually freezes really well, you just need to make sure you blanch it before freezing. So the recipe includes directions for how to make this freezer friendly as well. It worked perfectly – when I thawed and reheated it, the broccoli was perfectly cooked and bright green. Plus the other tip is to freeze cooked rice. It’s not common knowledge, but cooked rice freezes incredibly well and it’s a standard thing to do in Asian households. All my relatives in Japan do it, and I’ve never known any different because my mother always did it. Hope you enjoy it! Leave me a comment if you have any questions.
PS This recipe is part of my mission to consume an abnormal pile of broccoli I stockpiled because it was insanely cheap at the grocery store. Here are the other broccoli recipes I’ve shared as part of the Broccoli Consumption Mission: SaveSave
