Schezuan Broccoli

My family is really fond of Chinese cuisine. We also love spice in our food, so Schezuan dishes are real popular with us. And my son belongs to the rare species of kids who love broccoli – mind you, not just like, LOVE broccoli! 

So, today I decided to make broccoli in schezuan sauce. Fortunately, DH & DS are extremely sportive about being guinea pigs to my kitchen lab experiments! So, I do try out a lot of different dishes, making my own modifications to recipes. Sometimes they are a hit, sometimes a miss! Tonight’s was in the former category, thereby making it to the blog!

I used readymade schezuan paste this time (Ching’s brand to be specific), but if anyone has their own recipe for the same, go ahead and use it.

Preparation and Cooking: 15 minutes                       Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Broccoli – 1 small head, broken into florets

Onion – 1 medium, chopped

Ginger – small piece, grated

Garlic – 2 cloves, minced

Schezuan paste – 2 teaspoons

Soy Sauce – 2 teaspoons

Sriracha Sauce (hot red chilli sauce) – 2 teaspoons (omit this if mild food is preferred)

Honey – 1 teaspoon

Vegetable Stock – ¼ cup

Sesame Seeds – 1 tablespoon

Salt – to taste

Sesame Oil – 2 tablespoons

Method: 

1. Toast the sesame seeds in a nonstick pan till they turn a light brown shade. Set them aside.
 

2. Heat the sesame oil and sauté the chopped onions along with the minced ginger and garlic (I grate them with a microplane grater), till the onion begins to brown.

3.       Add the broccoli florets and mix it well.

4.       Add the schezuan paste, soy sauce and sriracha sauce.

5.       Now drizzle some honey over this and add salt to taste. The salt added should be less than what  you would normally add, since we have already added soy sauce. Now add the vegetable stock and cook for a couple of minutes.

6.       Empty this into a serving bowl and top it with the toasted sesame seeds.

Schezuan broccoli is ready. Tastes really good with rice (I used basmati rice). The heat from the schezuan paste and sriracha sauce provided a nice contrast to the saltiness of the soy sauce and the subtle sweetness of honey. The crunchy sesame seeds sealed the deal!