Recipe(tried): Beef with Broccoli, Cantonese Style

Judging from you location in CA (California or Canada?) If you are in the greater SF or LA area, you should be able to get the traditional Cantonese food (i.e.. from Hong Kong or Canton Province) in China Town (SF) and Monterey Park or Alhambra (LA). I am actually quite surprised that you couldn't find a recipe that's close enough to your childhood friend's home style food... But anyway, I will post what I do with the dish below. I can't promise you it will be like what you tasted before but it's a try! I don't normal measure the ingredients when it comes to home cooking so you may want to play around with the amount to suit your taste a bit. By the way, we Chinese don't eat much of the western broccoli. We (almost all the Chinese do and prefer this way) use "Gai Lan" (a.k.a. "Chinese Broccoli") for this dish. It is a dark green veggie with some tiny yellow flowers on the tip sometimes (when it's getting older.) Unlike the western broccoli, the "stalks" (rather than the florets) are preferred... Sometimes you have to "peel" the stalks a bit if you can't get the fresh crunchy, young ones... If you live in LA or other major cities, do try this veggie instead of the regular broccoli coz it plays a major roll in this dish. The western broccoli is the substitute when Chinese people can't find what they have in the homeland... Just ask for "Gai Lan" when you visit your local Chinese grocer. (That's the pronunciation in Cantonese.)

I hope the recipe is detailed enough... It's actually a very simple dish... If you are adventurous, you can use onion and thinly sliced bottom mushrooms instead of Gai Lan. These 2 veggies work well together...

Hope this helps!
=====================================
Beef with Broccoli, Cantonese Style
(The amoutn of seasoning is a rough guide...)

2/3 lb. beef tenderloin (or the most tender cut of the beef you could get!)
Slice the beef (across the grains!) then marinate it with 1 T. minced garlic, 1 T. cooking wine and 1 T. light soy sauce (light as color). After the sauce is rubbed into the meat (totally absorbed). Rub in the mixture of 1 T. water and 1 T. tapioca starch/cornstarch until fully absorbed. Leave aside. Do not marinate it for more than 2 hours ahead.

Prepare enough cooking oil to do the "par/pre-cooking" (like shallow frying) as we call it... (Do not use olive oil -- waste of your $$$ and not suitable for Asian cooking. Best use peanut oil or sunflower oil.)

some Chinese broccoli. I'd use about 1-1/2cup to 2 cups

1 green onion/spring onion (just chop off the roots and use everything else, including the white part.) Chop into sections, about 2 inches long
about 6 thin slice of young ginger (the younger the better!)

mix the sauce together in a small bowl:
1 1/2 T. (or taste) oyster sauce (always use Lee Kum Kee coz it's the best! Just get the regular one. You don't need to spend a fortune on the "superior" version.)
1/2 T. light soy sauce
1/2 T. Chinese cooking wine
2 T. water/ or stock (but do pay attention to the amount of salt in it.)
pinch of each: soft brown sugar, white pepper powder and light sesame oil (light as color)
1 - 1-1/2 t. tapioca starch/cornstarch

Just before shallow frying, add 1 T. of oil in the beef and mix well. (This make it easier to fry...)

Heat the wok, then add the oil for shallow frying. Wait until the oil is smoking. Then put in all beef and fry until about 90% cooked. (This is the precooking). Remove the beef from the oil. And leave only 2 T. oil in the wok. Wait until the wok is smoking hot again, add the green onions and ginger. Fry them until fragrant. Add the veggies and fry until the veggies turn dark green but still quite crunchy. Add beef immediately and then the sauce. On high heat, quickly stir-fry to mix well. Once the sauce thickens, it's ready to serve.