Wednesday: Mongolian Beef

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light, December 2009

Personal Note: I’ve never had Mongolian food before, and even with this recipe, it sounds very close to Chinese food (you think that’s offensive?). If all Mongols eat like this, then move over, Genghis Khan, Blythe is coming over! And for all those who think we’re vegetarian/white meat freaks, see we do eat red meat (sometimes)!

Plan of Attack:

1. Prepare noodles/rice

2. Cut veggies/beef

3. Whisk sauce

4. Wok and Roll

Ingredients for 2:

Sauce:

1 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

½ tsp sugar

½ tsp cornstarch

1 tsp dry sherry (for all the non-drinkers, I found a version in my dry grocery store. The alcohol will cook out, just FYI)

1 tsp hoisin sauce

½ tsp rice vinegar

½ tsp chile paste with garlic

1/8 tsp salt

Stir-Fry:

1 tsp peanut oil (we use wok oil. It’s infused with garlic. Have we mentioned how much we love garlic?

1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger

1 Tbsp minced fresh garlic (GARLIC!!! YEAH!)

½ pound sirloin steak, trimmed of excess fat and thinly sliced across the grain

4 medium green onions cut on the diagonal into 1 inch pieces (or bigger if you prefer)

1 small head of broccoli cut into chopstickable florets

2 servings thai rice noodles/rice

Instructions:

1. Prepare noodles/rice as package suggests, strain, set aside
2. Combine all sauce ingredients in a small bowl, set aside
3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet (or Wok) over medium-high heat.
4. Add ginger, garlic and beef; sauté 2 minutes or until beef is browned
5. Add green onions and broccoli; sauté another 30 seconds
6. Add sauce mixture and noodles/rice; cook 1 minute or until thickened; stirring constantly