broccoli!

It occurs to me that while I've been bitching and moaning about what I can't eat on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, I've done precious little talking about what I can eat in my sugar-free, starch-free world.

Since I've been craving one of my old delivery staples, beef with broccoli, for some time, I finally decided to see if I could approximate it at home in SCD-friendly fashion.

The primary no-no in all commercially-prepared Chinese food is hidden starch. Obviously, the sticky rice is verboten, but the sauces themselves are generally laden with cornstarch, soy sauce (which ontains wheat and soy), shortcut liquid extenders (i.e., which contains commercially prepared broth with starches) and sugar. SCD cooking is stripped of all these, so our sauces tend to be thinner (unless you cook them down within a drop of their lives) and less "coat-y". But we are allowed honey and, after we've been on the diet a bit, tamari in judicial doses, so a quick scan of the following recipe I found via cooks.com looked like it was adaptable:

STIR-FRIED BEEF AND BROCCOLI

BEEF:

2 tsp. soy sauce
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 lb. boneless sirloin, cut across the grain into 1/4 inch thick slices

SAUCE:

1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. med. dry sherry or scotch
1/4 c. chicken or beef broth or water
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. Oriental sesame oil

STIR-FRY:

3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp. minced peeled fresh ginger root
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 (4 inch) fresh red chili, seeded and minced (wear rubber gloves)
1/2 tsp. dried hot red pepper flakes
1 lb. broccoli, cut into flowerets and stems peeled and cut into 1/2 inch thick sticks
Cooked rice as an accompaniment

Prepare the beef: In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce, sugar, salt, add the beef and let it marinate for 20 minutes.

Make the sauce while the beef is marinating. In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in the soy sauce and stir in the sherry. Add broth or water, sugar and Oriental sesame oil.Put 3 tablespoons oil in stir fry pan or wok, add ginger root, garlic, fresh red chili, and broccoli. Finally add beef and cook until meat is ready. Serve with rice.

So here's what I did to make it legal:

STIR-FRIED BEEF AND BROCCOLI

BEEF:

2 tsp. soy sauce 1 tsp. tamari
1/4 tsp. sugar 1/2 tsp. honey (more than I need, but makes it thicker)
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 lb. boneless sirloin, cut across the grain into 1/4 inch thick slices

SAUCE:

1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. soy sauce 1 tbsp. tamari
1 tbsp. med. dry sherry or scotch
1/4 c. chicken or beef broth or water
1 tsp. sugar 1/2 tsp. honey
2 tsp. Oriental sesame oil

STIR-FRY:

Prepare the beef: In a small bowl, stir together with fork the soy sauce, sugar whisk the tamari, honey, salt with fork, add the beef and let it marinate for 20 minutes. Make the sauce while the beef is marinating. In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in the soy sauce and stir in the put the sherry scotch. Add broth or water, sugar and Oriental sesame oil. Put 3 tablespoons oil in stir fry pan or wok, add ginger root, garlic, fresh red chili, and broccoli. Finally add beef and cook until meat is ready. Serve with rice.

With these few simple adjustments, the dish is completely SCD-legal and, I might add, delicious! The BF, who can eat whatever the hell he likes, damn his eyes, chowed down an enormo-portion. Some people might say he did it to please me or with ulterior motives, but since (a) we had already had sex earlier that afternoon and (b) he got up and left the table when he was done to go lie down and take himself a nap while I was still eating, thankyouverymuch, I don't think that's the case. QED.

Anyway, just a little something to show you that SCD can be lovely and delicious just like regular-people food.

And in many cases, a helluva lot better for you.

xxx
c

Photo by Ben McLeod via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license

TAGS: recipes, Specific Carbohydrate Diet, beef with broccoli, stirfry, Chinese food