Mongolian Beef

Mongolia is the most sparsely populated independent country in the world, with a population of around 2.9 million people, with 38% of them living in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar.  It is also the world’s second-largest landlocked country after Kazakhstan, which means the country is surrounded on all sides by other countries.

But this recipe has nothing to do with Mongolia.

Mongolian beef is, in fact, the signature dish of an American restaurant called P.F. Chang’s, which serves American Chinese cuisine.  Of course, I live in the middle of the desert and therefore, up until today, I didn’t know that restaurant actually existed.  I also learned that they have a branch in Kuwait.

Anyway, so I was craving for some Chinese food this afternoon.  I hesitate to cook anything Chinese/Korean/Filipino because I’m not sure whether Masood’s Hyderabadi taste buds will like it or not.  But since I’m having lunch alone at home today,  I decided to browse the internet for quick and simple Chinese recipes and came across Mongolian Beef.

I got this recipe from Pink Bites.

1. Cut thin slices of flank steak (I used 250 gm, and not even sure if it’s flank or not, but they say flank tastes best).  Wash and pat them dry.
2. Add 2 tablespoonful of corn starch;  move them around to make sure all pieces are coated. Place in a strainer and shake off excess corn starch.  Set aside.
3. In a bowl mix:  ¼ cup soy sauce + 2 tbsp brown sugar + 1 tbsp red chili flakes + ¼ tsp of white pepper powder + 1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce.  Set aside.
4. Heat oil in a pan and saute grated ginger (1 tsp) + garlic (1 tbsp) + chopped white part of the scallion until light brown.
5. Add the soy sauce mix  and ½ cup of water into the pan and cook for about 2 minutes.  Transfer in the same bowl which you used to prepare the soy sauce mixture.
6. In the same pan (in which you just sauteed the garlic and ginger), heat a teaspoon of oil and fry the beef slices on high heat until nice and brown.
7. Add the sauce into the beef.  Cover and simmer on low heat for about 10-12 minutes.
8. Garnish with green part of the scallion and serve with a bowl of rice.

I love how the combination ‘sweet and spicy’ tickled my taste buds.  It’s so easy to prepare, and takes less than 30 minutes from prepping to serving! And did you notice that I used only one bowl and one pan?

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