Mongolian Beef

I went searching the other night for a good Mongolian Beef recipe. In truth, I was looking for something as similar to PF Chang's as possible and THIS IS IT!! Delicious!

PF Chang's Mongolian Beef

(BakeSpace)

Sauce:

2 tsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp minced ginger

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 lb flank steak

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 large green onions

Make the sauce by heating 2 tsp of oil in medium saucepan over med/low heat. Don't get the oil too hot or you'll get spatter when adding the other liquids. Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches. Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise the heat to about medium and boil the sauce for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove it from heat.

Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4 inch thick bite-size slices. Tilt the blade of your knife at about a 45 degree angle to the top of the steak so that you get wider cuts. Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch and apply a thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef. Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks. (I just tossed cornstarch in a Ziploc bag with the beef and gave it a good shake. This was much faster then individually dipping the meat.)

As the beef sits, heat one cup of oil in a wok (or skillet). Heat the oil over medium heat until it's nice and hot, but not smoking. Add the beef to the oil and saute for 2 minutes or until the beef just begins to darken on the edges. You don't need a thorough cooking here since the beef will go back on the heat later. Stir the meat around a little so it cooks evenly. After a couple of minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and place it on paper towels, then discard the leftover oil.

Put the pan back over the heat, dump the meat back into it and simmer for one minute. Add the sauce, cook for one minute while stirring, then add all the green onions. Cook for one more

minute, then remove the beef and onions with tongs or a slotted spoon to a serving plate.

You can also substitute chicken for the beef, if you prefer it.

*I wanted to serve this with broccoli so I steamed some and layered it between the rice and the beef. Yummy!