Beef with Kailan (Chinese Broccoli)

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This beef with kailan (牛肉炒芥蓝) is a classic Chinese stir-fry. With meat and veg both on the same plate, it can be the only side-dish to go with steamed rice on the dinner table and we’ll still be satisfied.

More Beef Recipes:

• Broccoli & Beef Recipe
• Black Bean Sauce Beef Recipe
• Black Pepper Beef Recipe

The gravy is deliciously savoury in this dish with flavour from the beef, ginger, garlic, shallot, fish sauce, soy sauce and Chinese wine. We love to drizzle every bit of sauce over steamed rice.

Ingredients (Beef with Chinese Broccoli Stir-fry)

For everyday beef stir-fry, I usually use the flank cut (above) as it is inexpensive and remains tender after cooking. For the occasional treat or when there’s a irresistible sale, one can use more premium cuts such as tenderloin, sirloin, or ribeye.

And this is the main green for this dish: kailan (芥蓝) aka Chinese broccoli. It is commonly labelled as “Hong Kong kailan” (we also have “chye sim kailan” and “baby kailan”) at the local supermarkets here. The kailan stems are thick, so this dish will really benefit from cooking the stems and leaves separately. I slice the thick kailan stems to thin diagonal slices (see above), stir-fry in the wok for about 2 minutes or until they start to soften, before adding the leaves which cook in a much shorter time.

And these are the aromatics for the stir-fry: garlic, chilli, shallots and ginger. I’m using chilli padi (bird’s eye chilli) for some real heat (despite being de-seeded, they are still hot). If you don’t want the heat, you can use finger-length chilli instead.