Gai Lan with Beef/Beef with (Chinese) Broccoli

Gai Lan with Beef
Serves 4-6

1 pound steak, cut against the grain into strips
black pepper
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
2 tablespoon Shao Hsing wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thinly
1 1/2 cube fresh ginger, peeled and sliced thinly
1 1/2 pounds gai lan, bottoms of stalks trimmed off, thick stalks cut into bite sized pieces on the bias
1/2 teaspoon-1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
1 can sliced water chestnuts
3 scallion
the leaves and thin stalks of the gai lan
1/3 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
cilantro

Mix together beef, pepper, soy sauce, wine and cornstarch, and allow to
marinate at least twenty minutes–I like to do this while I prepare the
rest of the ingredients.

Heat wok until it smokes, add oil, and heat until it bubbles. Add garlic,
scallions and ginger, and stir fry until quite fragrant–about forty
seconds. Add beef, reserving any liquid marinade left in the bowl, and
spread into a single layer in the bottom of the wok. Leave the meat
undisturbed for about a minute, allowing it to brown well on the bottom,
then stir fry briskly.

When most of the red is gone from the beef, add the thick gai lan stalk
pieces and stir fry about one minute, sprinkling the sugar over all, if
you use it.

Add the water chestnuts and the scallion tops, then the gai lan leaves.
Stir to combine, then pour the broth over the leaves, and stir briskly,
letting the combination of boiling broth, steam and hot oil begin the
process of wilting the leaves. Keep stirring–and be patient–the leaves
take about two minutes to fully wilt.

After the leaves have begun wilting, add soy sauce, oyster sauce and any
reserved marinade. Stir and fry until the leaves have become tender, but
are not completely limp and yucky-looking. Remove from the heat, and stir
in the sesame oil.