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Favorite China Best stir-fry found

By Lorie Hutson lorieh@spokesman.com(509) 459-5446

Reader Elizabeth Parisot recently sent an e-mail asking for help to find an old recipe she’d lost.

She wrote: “Do you, by any slim chance, have a recipe from a former Spokane restaurant? I am looking for a recipe from China Best … It was a garlicy, soy sauce-based stir fry. I thought I saw the recipe in a cookbook from Spokane Restaurants, but the only one I can find didn’t have the recipe.”

We found it in the local “Spokane Cooks! Northwest” book from 1988. The book featured local restaurant recipes and benefited the Spokane Community Centers Foundation.

Here’s the recipe:

Broccoli with Tangy Sauce

From China Best

5 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 stalk broccoli, cut into florets, stalk peeled

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

1 teaspoon chopped ginger root

1/2 teaspoon chili sauce

1 tablespoon Shao Hsing (rice wine)

1/2 teaspoon Chinkiang vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon sesame oil (or to taste)

Heat oil in a wok until very hot. Stir-fry the broccoli for 1 1/2 minutes, then remove to a dish.

Lower the heat by half. Remove all but 1 tablespoon of oil from wok. Stir-fry ginger, chili sauce and garlic until brown.

Return broccoli to work and stir for 1/2 minute. Add wine, vinegar, salt, soy sauce and sugar. Stir until well mixed.

Sprinkle with sesame oil before serving with steamed white rice.

Note: Chinkiang vinegar and rice wine are available at local Asian and international markets.

Yield: 4 servings

Looking for a recipe? Have a food question? Lorie Hutson would like to hear from you. Write to Cook’s Notebook, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210, or e-mail to cooksnotebook@ spokesman.com. As many letters as possible will be answered in this column; sorry, no individual replies.