Mongolian Beef

Here's another dish that spawned from gawking in Pinterest, P. F. Chang's Mongolian Beef Copycat Recipe by Six Sister's Stuff. When I saw the picture, my mouth started to water! I gotta have some! No, I gotta make some!

Now, there's no P. F. Chang's here in Bahrain and I have never tried their Mongolian Beef so I have no way of telling you whether that recipe is as good as that of P. F. Chang's, but what I can tell you is that the mongolian beef that I made adapted from that recipe was good...really good.

For my recipe, I made some modifications; a little plus/minus on the ingredients, (like the garlic, I needed more garlic!), and I have my way of cooking the beef. I like to sear the beef until the edges are caramelized and the only way to do that was to fry by batch. It's a little more tedious but sealing the flavor pays off for the extra time spent frying them.  So, if you want the original P. F. Chang's copycat recipe, (original copycat haha!), click the link here. For my version, keep reading. And oh, make sure you've got bowlfuls of steamed white rice.


Difficulty: Medium


Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20-25 minutes
Total Time: 30-35 minutes


Ingredients:

500 g flank steak, thinly sliced into bite sized pieces

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup vegetable oil, for frying, (after cooking the beef in it, reserve 1 tbsp of the beef oil)

1/2 tbsp ginger, minced

2 tbsp garlic, minced, (the original recipe called for 1 tbsp, but I love garlic so I doubled it!)

1/2 cup soy sauce 

1/2 cup water 

1/2 cup dark brown sugar 

1 tsp sesame oil (optional)

1/4 cup chopped scallions

1 tsp sesame seeds, lightly toasted*

*Tip on toasting the sesame seeds: Place the sesame seeds in a dry pan. Heat the pan over medium heat and shake the pan every couple of seconds to make sure the sesame seeds are evenly toasted. Keep a close eye on it, it only takes 1-2 minutes to toast the seeds.

Direction:

1. Heat the oil in a wok or skillet.

2. Season the beef with salt and pepper. Dredge the beef in flour then put the beef in a sieve to shake off excess flour. You only want a thin coating.

3. Sear the beef by batch, just enough to cover the wok. Do not overcrowd the wok. You want each piece to nicely brown on the edges on both sides, but be careful not to cook it all the way through as it will cook further when you put it back into the wok with the sauce. Drain over paper towels. Repeat the process until all the beef slices are cooked. Set aside.

4. Remove most of the oil from the wok but leave 1 tbsp of the oil. Saute garlic and ginger for 1 minute over high heat. 

5. Add the soy sauce, water and sugar and boil until the sugar is dissolved and the sauce thickens, about 2-3 minutes. Add the beef and toss until well coated. Let simmer for another 2 minutes to infuse the sauce into the meat. Just before you turn off the heat, add the sesame oil. 

6. Serve garnished with toasted sesame seeds and scallions on top.

Makes 2 servings

Home-cooked Meals

07 Apr 2012