Beef with Celery and Fried Tofu

Good evening, everyone!

We played hookie today at basketball practice.  It was the last practice of the season, since the boys don't like the sport and I was busy all morning preparing birthday stuff anyway, I decided we could just skip it.  :P  No complaints from the boys there!

Because I didn't have to go to basketball practice, I was able to make quite a decent meal tonight.  I usually do about 3 dishes for dinner, but my hubby is on a cleanse, so he's doing a shake for dinner tonight.  Therefore I only cooked two.

The first dish is - what else?  Tofu.  :)  What did you expect??  I used firm tofu this time. I just cut them up into small rectangles and fried them until golden brown.  For the sauce, I used a special Chinese thick soy sauce, but you can replicate the flavor with ordinary soy sauce and sugar.  Again, use your own judgement for the level of sweetness.  Then I minced some garlic (for me, the more the better, so I minced about 5 cloves), then mix the minced garlic into the soy sauce/sugar mixture.  Let sit while you fry the tofu, and by the time the tofu is ready, your sauce should be infused with the yummy taste of garlic.

This is my second dish.  It's slightly more complicated than the tofu dish so I'll list the ingredients and steps for you.

Ingredients

Marinade for beef:
1 cup of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
2 tsp of sugar
1 tablespoon of wine (again, any wine will do)
1/2 tsp of baking powder

1 stalk Chinese celery (you can use regular celery too, I'd say approximately 5 or 6 stems)
1 rib eye steak (trim away fat)
2 cloves of garlic, cut into slices

1/2 tsp salt (more or less, you be the judge!)
1/2 cup oil

Steps

1) combine all marinade for beef, set aside
2) cut beef into strips, put into marinade, set aside
3)  cut celery into 2 inch strips (if you're using regular celery, first slice each stem vertically into 3 stems)
4) heat about 1/4 cup of oil in frying pan (or wok),
5) throw in beef strips when oil is hot, stir fry until just about done, scoop up and set aside.
6) throw in garlic slices when oil is hot
7) when garlic turns slightly brown, throw in celery pieces.  Sprinkle salt over celery, stir fry for about a minute, then combine beef with celery, stir.
8) lower heat to about medium, cover and let cook for about 4 minutes.
9) open lid, turn heat back up to high, and stir fry for about a minute
10) scoop up and serve either over rice or pasta (or eat by itself, like I do)
11) Enjoy!!!

Maybe you can make this for tomorrow night's dinner?  Hmmm??  I know my boys were actually FIGHTING for the last piece of tofu!  Can you believe it?  6-year-old boys fighting over tofu???  It was that good.  Mission, accomplished. :)  Next time, I know I'd better make 2 boxes of fried tofu!

Good night!

Xoxo,
Lin