Minty beef wok

Last year when we had a lot of mint on the balcony we talked about trying this recipe from figs, lavender, and cheese. Before we got round to that we went away on vacation and effectively killed our herbs with negligence and then the summer was running out. As we have recently gotten started on growing mint again we decided it was about time we try the idea.

Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 head broccoli (separated into smaller bouquets)
- 250 g (~ ¹/₂ lb) rice noodles
- oil
- 1 red onion (cut in thin boats)
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 red chilli, finely diced
- 200 g (~ ²/₅ lb) beef, thin strips
- fresh mint
- fresh basil

At first the sugar was dissolved in the soy, fish, and oyster sauce - this combined sauce was set aside for later use.

The broccoli bouquets were boiled in lightly salted water, then drained, and set aside. Likewise for the rice noodles.

A wok was placed on high heat, coated with a thin layer of oil and the onion was added - after stir frying for about a minute, the crushed garlic and the chilli was added. After an additional 30 seconds or so the strips of beef were added and stir fried till browned on all sides. Finally the combined sauce (see above) was added together with whole leaves of fresh mint and basil. I used more mint than basil - mainly because I had more mint, but I quite liked the result.

After a final 1-2 minutes the wok was removed from the heat and the minty beef was served on the noodles with broccoli on the side - and a beer.