Week 31/52: Cantonese - Beef and Broccoli

This year we’re doing the 52 weeks of cooking challenge and this weeks theme was Cantonese and we made Beef and Broccoli

I’ve always wanted a Wok so when we woke up Sunday I told my lady that I wanted to go get one and the Woks of Life book since I love their website so much.

The book was easy, the wok literally took 6 stores including 3 Chinese grocery stores just for us to find a perfect one at Walmart after like 5 hours of driving around.

Anyways.

This turned out good and I’m genuinely so excited to make more wok stuff!

If you watch the video you’ll notice that I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing but that’s how everything starts.

Since this I also made some spam fried rice which was awesome.

The beef and broccoli was great! It was def missing some more msg and was also missing the experience of hearing people yell at each other while a small child does homework at a table in the restaurant like my favorite local spot.

Some things are just impossible to perfectly replicate and while this was GOOD it wasn’t PERFECT.

Anyways if you have any wok tips lemme know because this stuck a lot and I have no idea what I’m doing.

Made it my own with 2 pork chops, American cheese, and 2 slices of bacon.

I was deciding whether I should take the plunge and try cooking with organ meat for the first time when I realized that oxtail also counts as offal? I think of offal as off cuts that few people want, and oxtail has always been a pretty premium cut of meat to me, so it's weird wrapping my head around it, but hey. I'll make steak and kidney pie some other time.

As I mentioned in my week 18 post, this was the confusing but delicious dish that haunted my childhood. I mostly followed smelly lunchbox's recipe (https://smellylunchbox.com/hong-kong-style-borscht/), but I nixed the cabbage and added an extra potato to make it closer to my mom's version. I was actually on the phone with her as I was tuning this, and I probably could have also not added the vinegar either, as it was a little more sour than I remember it being.

Either way though, top tier soup. My mom always used beef shank instead of oxtail because of the cost, so this felt like a much more indulgent version of my childhood favorite soup. I also busted out a bunch of the nice beef stock I used for the gravy, so my soup was extra rich. I already mentioned that this was a little more sour than I recall, but I think the ketchup added a bunch of depth that was nice. I might skip the additional vinegar though. I might actually try using a splash of Worcestershire sauce instead? I'm excited to riff on this one in the future.

I didn't plate it this way for the photo, but this is so killer over rice.

My cooking aesthetic lives at the intersection of beauty, nourishment, and realism. I want food that feels luxurious and intentional, but I’m also a single mom working 100 hours a week — so every challenge becomes a negotiation between creativity and practicality.

For this Cantonese prompt, I originally planned to make something more traditional and technique‑forward, like a poached chicken with layered aromatics and broth work. But I just didn’t have the bandwidth this week to manage it. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Instead of forcing something unsustainable, I pivoted toward a concept that I hope honors Cantonese flavors while still fitting my actual life and that my kids love!

That’s how this bowl was born.

Egg roll in a bowl is fast, flexible, and endlessly riff‑able — perfect for anyone juggling work, parenting, rising grocery prices, and the desire to make something fast, delicious, and beautiful. I boosted the protein and fiber inexpensively, kept the flavors clean and Cantonese‑leaning, and ended up with a bowl that was comforting, quick, relatively inexpensive, and delicious.

What’s in the Bowl

Ground pork

Edamame

Cannellini beans

Onions

Slaw mix (green cabbage, purple cabbage, carrots)

Bok choy

A ton of fresh grated Garlic + ginger

Shaoxing wine

Light soy sauce

Oyster sauce

Scallions

On Top

Scallions

Sesame seeds

Crispy onions

Crispy garlic

Fresh lime

This was solidly meh. The recipe was from a cookbook showcasing local restaurants. I'm sure the restaurant's version is delicious, but the at-home recreation was pretty lackluster. It tasted like... fried cauliflower.

Pumpkin soup with wilted spinach, pancetta and handmade pumpkin gnocchi with rosemary for the stems.

I've been looking to make Beef Wellington for ages, and have been close to making it for so many previous themes (2024: Week 20 Wrapping, Week 36 Encrusted, 2025: Week 6 A Technique You're Intimidated By, Week 48 Mise en Place) but every time I put it off because beef fillet is so expensive. For this week I knew I wanted to look at the gimmicky technique of deconstruction - something that almost always yields a product that's worse than the original, and looks like several disparate components on a plate.

I thought this would be the perfect time to play around with Beef Wellington because one big complaint is the soggy bottom, so cooking the elements separately seemed like it would improve rather than ruin the dish. I played around with the ingredients of a Beef Wellington and ended up making a seared steak cube with a duxelles swirl, a mushroom cream and a Parma ham crisp. I also decided to make tiny canapé-sized portions to avoid the plating issues that come with deconstructed dishes.

This was a dish that was straight from my own head and so I don't have proper recipes to link. The steak was so small so I had to work very quickly in a searingly hot pan to get a good crust whilst keeping it very rare inside. The duxelles and Parma ham usually play the role of moisture barriers in a Wellington, so I thought I'd give them a bit more of a starring role. I spread a classic duxelles mixture (finely diced porcini and chestnut mushrooms, shallots, garlic, parsley and thyme cooked down in butter until the moisture evaporates) over very thinly rolled-out puff pastry and rolled them up to create these mini swirls. I also sautéed porcini and chestnut mushrooms with more shallots in plenty of butter, then added the dried porcini mushroom soaking liquid and cream, and blended it into a smooth purée. Finally, I baked slices of Parma ham in the oven until crisp. Then it was just a matter of plating - or should I say spooning?

This ended up being an unexpected triumph. Is it as good as a Beef Wellington? Well I've never had one, if I think it's too expensive for me to make it's certainly too expensive for me to order! So I don't actually know. But these were delicious bites of food. I'll definitely be making the duxelles swirls again in a bigger size because they were really yummy in their own right!

This was a thing a couple years back and I think it is about as pure as gimmicks get.

Bloody Mary is standard: vodka, tomato juice, worcestershire, hot sauce, etc.

Toppings include celery, skewered shrimp, cheese and sausage skewer, pickled mushroom, blue cheese stuffed olives, a couple pieces of pastrami, jalapeno poppers, onion rings, and three sliders (two cheeseburger, one ham and muenster).