Sweet-sour beef

5 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
2 tablespoons Soy sauce
2 tablespoons Sherry
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 pounds Round steak; thinly sliced
2 tablespoons Cornstarch
1 cup Water; divided
1 large Onion; cut in 8 wedges
2 larges Cloves garlic; minced
2 larges Carrots; sliced thin diagonal
1 large Green pepper; cut in chunks
1 large Broccoli spear; cut in pieces
½ cup Catsup
¼ cup Cider or rice vinegar
½ cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Chili paste; optional
2 cups Grapefruit sections
Oil

Directions

In a bowl mix well soy sauce, sherry and 1 tsp sugar; add meat and toss to coat. Marinate meat for at least 15 minutes, tossing occasionally. Drain meat; reserving the marinade for sauce. In a large heavy skillet or wok, heat a little oil until hot but not smoking. Over medium-high heat stir-fry meat for about 1 minute or till almost done. Remove meat, set aside and keep warm.

In a small bowl mix together catsup, ½ cup sugar, vinegar and chili paste. In another bowl mix ½ cup water and cornstarch.

Add the carrot and any broccoli stem pieces to the skillet and stir fry for 1 or 2 minutes, add the onion and garlic and stir fry for about 1 more minute. Add ½ cup of the water and cook for a few minutes more till carrot is almost crisp tender. Add a little additional oil if necessary.

Add green pepper and any broccoli florets and cook an additional 1 or 2 minutes. Stir in reserved marinade. Stir in the catsup mixture and heat through. Add cornstarch/water mixture and cook and stir till sauce bubbles and thickens. Fold in meat and grapefruit sections. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Formatted for MasterCook by Mardi amdesjar@... November 21, 1997.

Mardi's notes: I got the original for this recipe from Woman's Day Magazine, February 1981 but made a few modifications. The original called for the meat slices to be coated with additional cornstarch before browning and used ¼ tsp black pepper instead of the chili paste. I added the broccoli and doubled the amount of carrot because it seemed to need more veggies. The vegetables could be varied according to your preference.

Cauliflower, snow peas and mushrooms would likely all be good additions.

You may find the taste to be on the sweet side but it was well received by my tasters. It would be a simple matter to cut back on the amount of sugar.

You could maybe start with ¼ or ⅓ cup sugar and add more if needed.

Serving Ideas : Serve over rice Posted to MC-Recipe Digest V1 #918 by Mardi Desjardins <amdesjar@...> on Nov 21, 1997

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