Beef in Orange Sauce

Your stir fry is only as good as it's sauce, so really the recipes I am sharing here are sauce recipes. I like a lot of sauce in my stir fry. Adjust the amount of sauce used to your taste. This sauce is good with beef, chicken and shrimp.

This sauce uses sesame oil. look for Japanese toasted sesame oil in the asian section of your grocery store, or check out your local asian market (more about those next time.) I like the taste of white wine vinegar in Chinese sauces, but any kind will work. Use any veggies you like. For really quick dinners use a frozen stir fry mix. Poke a hole in the bag and microwave for a minute to thaw the veggies a bit. If using fresh veggies cut them in uniform size, but larger than you would for a soup or stew. Remember to add your fresh veggies in order of hardness, Carrots, broccoli stems first, then beans, peas and last broccoli flowers and zucchinis. The beef I used is thinly sliced round roast. I buy them on sale and ask my butcher to slice them as thin as he can. Then I freeze the slices in 1 lb chunks( 4-5 servings)and add 2 tsp soy sauce before I seal the bag. If you do not own a wok you can use a large frying pan, cast iron is best, but you will need to cook half at a time, or only make a half recipe.

Orange-Sesame Sauce

1/2 C orange juice

1/4 C chicken broth

1/4 C soy sauce

2T sesame oil

3T brown sugar

3T white wine vinegar

1/2 tsp ginger

1T cornstarch

Mix ingredients together and set aside.

Prepare 1 lb assorted vegetables of your choice plus 1 onion sliced and 3 minced garlic cloves. Drain 1lb sliced beef that has beef marinated in 2 tsp soy sauce.

Heat a wok or a large frying pan on high heat. Add 1T peanut or other vegetable oil. When oil is hot add onion. Stir constantly. As onion starts to brown add beef. Continue to swish food around in wok as you add vegetables. Add vegetbles one kind at a time ( if using frozen add all at once) until they begin to soften. Pour in sauce and bring to a boil. Serve over warm rice. serves 4-6.