A Special Treat

Almost three years ago, my husband and I took a weekend trip to Philadelphia.  One of the main motivators for the trip (at least for me) was the fact that Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto is the proprietor of a Japanese restaurant on Chestnut Street appropriately called Morimoto.  I was absolutely dying to eat at this restaurant so my husband indulged me and we had dinner there one of the nights we were in town.

One of the first things that were brought to our table was a giant bowl of salted edamame.  Edamame are soybeans that are steamed while still in their pods.  You eat them by popping the beans out of the pods.  Being that I come from a place that puts french fries on everything (not that there’s anything wrong with french fries on everything), I was completely unfamiliar with edamame.  The waitress gave us a crash course in how to eat them and I was hooked.

Unfortunately though, finding edamame at home was damn near impossible.  I would check every grocery store I would walk to see if they had them, fresh or frozen it didn’t mater as long as I could get soybeans in their pods so I could steam them and dump salt on top of them.  No such luck.  For about a year and half I couldn’t find even shelled edamame at the grocery store.  Eventually though, my soybeans were strarting to pop up around me.  I managed to find bags shelled soybeans in the frozen section of a small local grocery store, but the price wasn’t great.  I eventually came across some fresh ones at Costco.  I bought a pack and because I tend to forget about things in my fridge, they went bad before I could eat them.

Then,a week or two ago, I struck soybean gold.  As I was walking down one of the frozen aisles at Costco, I came across a box of soybeans in their pods in little steambags!  I bought a box and on Saturday I had a plan to make Hoisin Noodles  with Beef and Broccoli  and I decided that my little soybeans were going to be the side dish.

With these noodles, once again I have kind of tweaked the recipe.  The original recipe can be found in the Now and Later  Weight Watchers cookbook.  It originally called for soba noodles which are a Japanese buckwheat noodle, and flank steak.  I ended up using a pack of rice noodles (mai fun) becaue I love the flavor of them and instead of the flank steak I ended up using some little meat cubes that I found in the meat section.  The sticker on the pack said fondue or something like that.  I did that because it was cheap and flank steak most of the time isn’t.  This is one of those times where I tell you to use your favorite cut of beef.

What is hoisin sauce? I figured that not many people would be familiar with hoisin.  Hoisin is a Chinese barbecue sauce.  A lot of times you if you go to a Chinese Buffet that has a Mongolian BBQ option you can find it there.

If you decide to use rice noodles for this dish (you can use the soba noodles if you want or even thin spaghetti), they are not hard to cook whatsoever.  You have to do is pour boiling water over top of them and let them steep for 20 minutes.  So easy!

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Hoisin Noodles with Beef and Broccoli

5 cups small broccoli florets

1 package of rice noodles (mai fun)

1 pound of trimmed beef of your choice (cut into chunks)

3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

juice of one lime

1 1/2 tsp Sriracha (Asian Chili garlic sauce)

1 tsp corn starch

1 red bell pepper thinly sliced

1 onion thinly sliced

1 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger

Bring a pot of  water to a boil.  Add broccoli and cook until crisp-tender (about two minutes).  Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate.

Meanwhile, cut up your steak if it isn’t already.  Mix the hoisin sauce, lime juice, sriracha, and corn starch in a small bowl until smooth.

Spray a large skillet with non stick spray and ste over medium high heat.  Add one third of the meat and cook stirring constantly until just browned.  Transfer to a plate and repeat with the remaining beef.  Add the bell pepper and onion to the skillet.  Reduce heat and cook stirring constantly until crisp-tender.  Add the ginger and cook until fragrant.  Add the hoisin sauce mixture and cook until the sauce simmers.  Add the beef and broccoili and cook until heated. Add noodles and cook until the noodles are heated.

edamame

Hoisin Beef and Broccoli