Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Our son unexpectedly was in the hospital for 12 days, which made it rather hard to cook anything. You can read about our ordeal over on Sarah's Blog. He's doing great now that we're home, so on with the show!
I found this recipe using StumbleUpon, and it looked too good not to try. I made a couple of minor modifications, and it came out really tasty. I'll definitely be making this one again, perhaps with a *little* bit more hot pepper. This was my first time using my Tien Tsin peppers (three times as hot as crushed red pepper), and I decided to err on the side of too little so as not to ruin Valentine's Day dinner. :)
Mongolian Beef
Ingredients:
- 1 lb flank steak, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 3 teaspoons of canola oil
- 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger (about 1/2 inch piece)
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 2 -3 large cloves)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
- 2-4 Tien Tsin peppers (or 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes)
- 3 large green onions, sliced
- Rice, for serving
Directions:
- For the meat, make sure the steak slices are dry by patting them with a paper towel. Slice them into strips, then add the cornstarch to the beef. Place the slices in a strainer and shake off excess corn starch. Begin to cook the rice while you prepare the rest of the meal.
- For the sauce, heat half of the oil in a large wok or pan at medium-high heat and add the garlic and the ginger. Immediately add the soy sauce, water, brown sugar and hot peppers. Cook the sauce for about 2 minutes and transfer to a bowl. Don’t worry if the sauce doesn’t look thick enough at this point. The corn starch in the beef will thicken it up later.
- Place the meat in the same pan with the remaining oil and cook, stirring until it is all browned (this is a quick thing). Pour the sauce back into the wok/pan and let it cook along with the meat, 5-10 minutes or until sauce reaches desired thickness.
- Add the green onions during the last minute so the green parts will stay green and the white parts crunchy. Serve it hot with rice. Serves 2.
Notes:
I did a quick stir-fry of carrots, onions, broccoli, water chestnuts, and white onion before I cooked the beef. The sauce was perfect for the vegetables and there was plenty for the beef and the veggies. I used 2 peppers, I think 4 would be just the right amount. I didn't cut them up, and I removed them when I added the green onion so we wouldn't accidentally eat them.
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