Chinese Beef and Broccoli Stirfry

By now my Chinese cooking had really started to take off, I am by no means 'chefy' and enjoy throwing together a recipe with little regard to the ultimate look of the food. To be honest, I like to eat my food whilst it is still piping hot - issue number one. Issue two is that my artistic vision is limited and I struggle to make my finished dish to look artsy fartsy - professionally pretty. I do have some vision it's not a case of having NO vision at all because I do, a little bit. A friend of mine takes some really beautiful pictures of her friend, several do in fact and all of them have given me ideas but my ideas involve spending money which would be better spent else where. For the time being my ideas have to be put on hold, we've had to completely set up home, we had no furniture basically nothing, we had been living in fully furnished accommodation for four years, we had a computer chair and that was about it, which I love it rocks although I could do without Glen rocking it backwards quickly  when I am sat in it, I'm certain he has insured me and trying to bump me off by scaring me to death. We also own a bookshelf but need several more to hold all our books, plus extra ones for all the books we are going to get, and a few other storage units, we had nothing to sit on or sleep on, so extra bits to make my food look pretty are less of a priority at the moment. I do aspire to one day having 'chefy' looking pictures, in the meantime it's very much a case of bish, bash, bosh! If I manage a good picture of my food then all the better, I think the real problem though is that I have really bad eating habits, usually skipping breakfast and lunch, substituting food for coffee and cigarettes, just as well I don't touch the wacky backy, I wouldn't do well with the munchies. Anyway by the time I get home from work and get myself sorted I am starving, spending time neatly putting food on my plate to then mix it all about, before cramming it down my throat as fast as I possibly can, without suffocating myself (by this stage I am dying of starvation and eating like someone who has gone without food for weeks) would be a waste of time.

Beef and Broccoli in Black Bean Sauce

1/2lb beef steak
2 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup broccoli
1/2 cup spinach
1/2 cup mushrooms
1 tsp fermented black beans
1/4 tsp chili paste
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp red rice vinegar
3 tbsp oil for stir-frying
1 garlic clove minced

1. Cut the beef across the grain into thin strips about 2" long. Add the soy sauce, salt, sugar, cornflour and baking soda, marinate the beef for 30 minutes.

2. Blanch the broccoli and spinach drain thoroughly, soak the black beans, mash and mix with the chili paste.

3. Mix together the chicken stock, dark soy sauce and sugar.

4. Add 2 tbsp of the oil the a preheated wok or skillet, when the oil is hot, add the beef and stir-fry until it changes colour and nearly cook through, remove from the wok and drain on paper towels, add the remaining oil to the wok and add the chili paste mixture, stir-fry for a short time until it's aromatic, then add the mushrooms, spinach and broccoli, then add the red rice vinegar.

5. Add the sauce to the middle of the wok, and when it starts to boil re-add the beef, simmer gently until everything is cooked through.