Mongolian Beef
New family favorite…Mongolian Beef. Thinly sliced steak seared in a sizzling wok and finished with a basic soy sauce mixture. A few sliced scallions added for color and crunch–it couldn’t be easier!
There is a quick (30 minute) marinating step in this recipe, that really shouldn’t be skipped. In Chinese cooking, this is called “velveting” because the cornstarch mixture tenderizes the beef before cooking quickly over high heat. To keep this weeknight dinner moving along, my advise is to make the marinade, slice the beef and toss the two together. Then move on to mixing together the sauce, prepping your wok and slicing the ginger, garlic and scallions. And speaking of slicing the beef, to get nice, clean, thin cuts, it’s best to slice the meat cold. Don’t be afraid to even throw it in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Just bring the meat close to room temperature before adding it to the hot wok.
Serve Mongolian Beef over white rice with some steamed broccoli and boom! Chinese take-out without all the grease and guilt. Enjoy!
Mongolian Beef
- 2 Tbls oil
- 1 lb beef tenderloin, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- 4 stalks scallions, cut into 2-inch strips
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 2 Tbls water
- 2 tsp mirin (or sake or sherry)
- 1 Tbls oyster sauce
- 1/4 c soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp ground white pepper (or 1 tsp ground black pepper)
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- Mix together the ingredients for the marinade in one bowl. Add the thinly sliced beef and marinate for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, combine the sauce ingredients in another bowl. Set aside.
- Heat wok with 1 Tbls of oil and stir-fry the marinated beef until it is partially cooked (pink).
- Remove beef to a plate and set aside.
- Heat the remaining 1 Tbls of oil and stir-fry the garlic and ginger until aromatic.
- Return the beef to the wok and add the sauce mixture.
- Continue to stir-fry until the beef slices are almost done, then add the scallions.
- Do a few quick stirs, dish out and serve hot.
- I doubled this recipe and used 2 lbs of London broil, thinly sliced.
- As great as the beef is hot, right out of the wok, it can be reheated or even served at room temperature if you are juggling a variety of dinnertime schedules.