Beef and Broccoli Stir-fry

I love Chinese food! But when you buy it in a restaurant it can be heavy and greasy making it rather unhealthy for you. One of the incentives to cooking Chinese food yourself is because you can limit the amount of oil you use when cooking and still get the great flavors you love. Another way to make sure your family is eating well is to serve your food with steamed rice instead of fried rice. Note: To make it easier to slice the steak very thinly, place it in the freezer for 20 min, wrapped well in plastic.

Serves: 4 (However, in our house it only serves 2, because Mike will eat several servings)
Start to Finish: 1 hour
Recipe by: Martha Stewart Food Magazine

Ingredients:

1 lb flank steak (cut diagonally, across the grain)
1 large head broccoli (steams trimmed, peeled, and cut)
1 TBSP cider vinegar
1 TBSP sugar try using brown sugar, too; for a subtle change in flavor
3 TBSP apple juice try using pineapple juice, too; for a subtle change in flavor
1/4 tsp pepper
1 TBSP cornstarch
1 TBSP peanut oil You can substitute Canola oil if you don't have peanut oil
3 TBSP light soy sauce
3 garlic cloves (minced)

Directions:

1. Slice your flank steak in long, thin strips at a diagonal across the grain. Cutting your meat this way will improve tenderness because you are breaking up the fat marbling or "grains" in the meat. By making your cut at a 45 degree angle you are increasing the surface area of the meat, which is important for thin cuts of meat like a flank steak.
2. In a shallow Tupperware container, combine the cider vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, apple juice, pepper, and garlic cloves to make a marinade for you steak
3. Add the meat to your marinade and place in the fridge for 15-20 minutes
4. Meanwhile, wash and chop your broccoli and ...
5. ...start steaming your rice. I usually use a rice cooker and about 2 cups of uncooked rice to feed 4 people.
6. Remove steak from fridge. Transfer meat to a plate and reserve your marinade
7. Heat oil in a skillet over high heat
8. In two or three batches cook steak until lightly browned, about 1 minute a side. This happens fast, do not walk away from your pan. Add meat, flip meat, set meat aside, repeat until all meat is cooked.
9. Remove meat, set aside, and keep warm
10. Add 1/2 cup of water to your pan to stir up the browned bits on the bottom of pan
11. Pour water and browned bits into your marinade Tupperware
12. Whisk cornstarch into your marinade.
13. In your pan, fry broccoli until bright green and crisp, tossing often. About 4 minutes. You don't need to add more oil here.
14. Add one cup of water to broccoli and cook until tender, about 6 minutes
15. Stir marinade mixture into broccoli and bring to a boil, stir until marinade thickens
16. Return steak to your pan, heat through
17. Serve over hot steamed rice