Mongolian Beef

By KitchenGnome

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced
• 2 tablespoon garlic, chopped
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• Vegetable oil, for frying
• 1-1/2 lb flank steak
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 cups of one-inch lengths green onions

Preparation

Step 1

Make the sauce
Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over med/low heat, make sure that you don’t get the oil too hot. Add minced ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches. If you are cooking on the medium heat, this will happen very quickly. 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 the heat.

Prepare the beef
Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4″ thick bite-size slices. Tilt the blade of your knife at about a forty five degree angle to the top of the steak so that you get wider cuts. Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef. Alternatively, you can also place the beef pieces on a shallow baking dish, sprinkle the cornstarch, mix them gently so most pieces are coated. Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks.

Prepare the dish
As the beef sits in the cornstarch, heat up one cup of oil in a wok (you may also use a skillet for this step as long as the beef will be mostly covered with oil). Heat the oil over medium heat until it’s nice and hot, but not smoking. Add the beef to the oil and sauté for just two minutes, or until the beef just begins to darken on the edges. You don’t need a thorough cooking here since the beef is going to go back on the heat later.

Stir the meat around a little so that it cooks evenly. After a couple minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and onto paper towels, then pour the oil out of the wok or skillet.

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 1.5 cups of the green onions. Cook for one more minute, then remove the beef and onions with tongs or a slotted spoon to a serving plate. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of the green onions on top. Leave the excess sauce behind in the pan.

Yield: 4 servings (with rice)