So simple, there's not even a recipe.....

Around here, we call this, "stir fry." Period. If you use beef, it's, "beef stir fry." If you use chicken, it's, "chicken stir fry." Good grief. Did I use enough punctuation marks? I seriously doubt I used them correctly, but it felt good. :-)

I absolutely love Oriental food. No one else in my family loves Oriental food. (Except Mandy - she likes Sushi - eeew). (OK - except Krissy, who loves Sesame Chicken.) But still.

I think what I'm trying to say is, Rob HATES it. He won't go near an Oriental restaurant because the smell makes him sick. I know, but I love him anyway. He has many other redeeming qualities, so I can forgive him for this one little thing.

So I had to figure out a way to cook Oriental food without them knowing that's what they were having.

I've been making this dish for twenty-five years and my family, to this day, doesn't think it's Oriental food. It's just "stir fry" and they love it.

Back in the day, I had so many Eastern cuisine cookbooks, it was ridiculous. I've given those away to friends or garage sales, forever, and now I don't own one. This is the only even remotely Oriental dish I make. And somehow, I think Oriental people would laugh at me, but this works for my family.

And here's the thing. It's so simple, so easy, there's no recipe at all. I made this up and I cook it when I'm tired, want to make a good dinner and be done with it.

Actually, I've been known to serve this at a "dinner party," and it just impresses the socks off people, which makes me smile. They probably think I bought fresh ginger root and stood there and very finely grated it. LOL

No way.

I can get into making a very complicated, delicious, and labor intensive dish. (Like, say, Paula Deen's coconut cake.) But not when I'm tired. This one impresses your family or your friends, in about twenty minutes. That works for me.

So here you go. Barb's "No-Recipe" genuine, truly good, easy, get-out-of-the-kitchen-fast, but leave them happy, stir fry.

Bottled classic stir fry sauce and let me tell you, if you've never cooked with sesame seed oil, it's wonderful. The flavor is nutty and so good. But...beware. Sesame seed oil (which you'll find only in the Oriental food section of your supermarket) smokes and burns at a very low temperature, so never put this in a pan and walk away.

So easy. Beef sliced into thin strips, onion sliced into big slices, mushrooms sliced into big chunks and broccoli flourettes, from fresh broccoli, although I think frozen would work if you thaw it first.

Here's the thing. I normally buy flank steak and slice it very thinly across the grain. The butcher at Wal-Mart told me yesterday, they don't do flank steak, which isn't true, since I shop there all the time and I know they do, but you know, he's probably new and I didn't want to stress him out, so I bought some round steak.

I was NOT in the mood to cook tonight. So pre-sliced mushrooms, cheap round steak sliced as thinly as I could manage, whatever. It worked for me.



For my birthday, almost thirty years ago, my Daddy gave me a WestBend wok. There it is. See? It's that red thing at the bottom of this cupboard. Guess what? I just didn't feel like getting it out tonight, and truly, I've never done that before. I decided, what the heck, use the big frying pan.

Yay me!



So I just threw the thinly sliced, cheap round steak into the pan and over high heat, stir fried it in sesame seed oil until......



it looked about like this.



then I threw the onions on top....



and the broccoli....



and mixed it all up. And stir fried it.

If you don't know what stir fry means (which would mean you're about the same age as my daughters and just learning to really cook), I know if you've eaten in an Oriental restaurant, you know the vegetables are cooked, but they're crispy - the secret is to cook the vegetables, but not overcook them. Vegetables in stir fry shouldn't be soft. They should be "crispy-fried." So use your stir fry paddles, or whatever you have on hand, to constantly "toss" everything as it cooks. Nothing should sit on the bottom of your pan and "cook." Stir it!



When the broccoli is this gorgeous bright green color, you're good.



I add the mushrooms last because they only need a couple of minutes to cook and there's nothing more disgusting than overcooked, soft mushy mushrooms in any dish. I like them cooked but still "crispy tender." Don't you love that? "Crispy tender."

Now, simply pour the classic stir fry sauce over everything. This is a matter of taste. You can pour as little or as much as you like. I think this is something you learn as you go. It really is a matter of taste.



OK, this is cookin'! And now I'm going to turn the heat down to "low," put a lid on it, and......



...shout out to Rob, "Dinner's ready! Give it about five minutes and help yourself, because I need to run in and do a quick post and Hell's Kitchen starts in half an hour.!!"

By the way, that other pot is Minute Rice. I serve this over rice.

There you go. Stir fry. My way.

And about Hell's Kitchen..it's one of the only two shows I'm watching right now...the other one being, The Bachelorette. Go ahead and judge me. I freely admit I'm shallow. But really, my mind can't take anything much more complicated than the hilarity of Hell's Kitchen and The Bachelorette right now. Perfect!

And it leaves me five nights a week to, you know, sew stuff.

Just for the record, Hell's Kitchen is absolutely no reflection, whatsoever, on MY kitchen. Why, I'd never scream at my helpers. If I had any helpers. Which I don't. LOL