Beef, Tofu, and Veggie Stir-Fry

When I bought the organic tofu I intended to use it for Hot & Sour soup. But while putting the groceries away on that day, I discovered that my pantry was lacking of a bottle of rice vinegar. That happens to be the ingredient that makes the soup. So I said, oh well. I’ll go back to the store sometime and buy a bottle.

Except of course that “sometime” never happened when we had leftover grilled steaks one night. I planned on using the steaks for stir-fry and I figured I’d do a variation of my usual stir-fry recipes by adding cubed tofu. It was a variation that worked perfectly.

INGREDIENTS :

• 1 pack of firm tofu (organic or otherwise), cubed
• vegetable oil for sauteing
• half of medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• strips of leftover steak (or fresh)
• broccoli florets
• green beans
• 3 tbsp of soy sauce
• 3 tbsp of oyster sauce
• ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup of water
• another 1/2 cup of water stirred with 1 tbsp of cornstarch

Heat up the wok, then add the oil. Make sure you do the swirl thing with the oil and wok. That’s how you coat the wok with oil for stir-frying. Fry the cubed tofu. Brown ‘em a little bit then set aside.

Saute garlic and onions. Try not to burn the garlic . Add the strips of leftover steak. Cook for about 3 minutes. The meat is already cooked so you’re pretty much just reheating it. If it’s fresh meat, obviously you have to cook it longer.

Add the broccoli, green beans, oyster sauce, black pepper and soy sauce. Stir everything together. Add  1/2 cup of water. Cover and let everything cook for about 8-10 minutes.

Stir in the browned cubed tofu. Then stir in the cornstarch mixture. That will thicken up the sauce. It’ll happen instantly, maybe a minute or so. Shorter most probably so you might as well turn the stove off.

And that’s about it. Served with bacon and peas fried rice.