Name: Beef and Broccoli on a Bird’s Nest (芥蘭炒牛肉)
Yield: Serves 2 as a main course, 3–5 as part of a multicourse meal.
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons thin (regular) soy sauce; ½ teaspoon white or brown sugar (I use white if I am seasoning the dish with oyster sauce, brown if I am seasoning it with red pepper.); 3–4 cups fresh corn or peanut oil; ½ pound round steak or flank steak, trimmed of all fat and tough sinew (weight after trimming); 1 ounce bean threads (glass noodles); 1–1½ pounds fresh broccoli, preferably with thick, solid stems; about 6 tablespoons corn or peanut oil, for stir-frying; 1 teaspoon corn or peanut oil; 1½ teaspoons cornstarch; 1–2 teaspoons finely minced fresh ginger (use lesser amount with oyster sauce); 3 tablespoons water; 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or quality, dry sherry; ½ teaspoon sugar; 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt; ⅛–¼ teaspoon dried red chili flakes, or 1 tablespoon oyster sauce mixed with 2 teaspoons water

Preparation info

Serves
2
as a main course .

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking

By Barbara Tropp

Published 1982

About

This dish is a pretty landscape of food—a mound of slivered, stir-fried beef with fresh broccoli flowerets and coins cut from the tender stems, all served atop a crispy, white bed of deep-fried bean threads. It is simple to do, yet the appearance is so festive that it should be saved for a special dinner. The seasonings are light, either oyster sauce or a bit of chili, as you wish.