Nov 23, 2005
This dish is delicious and easily made. Instead of using small mushrooms, I bought one large mushroom and sliced it to death, which came out great for this dish. I also substituted 1 cup of rice for the pasta, because I think that Chinese dishes should have a rice base and not pasta. If you substitute rice, you may need to use more bullion. Finally, I used a bag of frozen broccoli florets that I defrosted for 1 minute in the microwave- I find that most frozen vegetables are actually fresher and taste better when frozen than when you buy them supposedly "fresh," plus you get more for your money since you're not buying the lousy broccoli stalks.
For those who say that the dish was bland or was too tough, maybe this is what went wrong:
Make sure that the beef is cut thin. Some supermarkets sell round beef "sandwich slices" with little fat and cut thin- all you really might need to do is to cut each slice in half and you'll be good to go. It was quite tender when I made it, unlike some people's remarks here. Important: make sure the cut is from Round Beef or Top Sirloin, not chuck, “stew beef” or something else inferior.
The recipe says to throw out the marinade before mixing the beef with the rest of the dish. Don't do that. Instead, make sure you really press all the marinade well into the beef using the back of a fork when marinating. If you do that then you won't have any extra marinade to discard anyway. This gives the beef excellent flavor and makes it tender.
—Alex
