Mongolian Beef...

Bold, a little spicy and most definitely hit the spot - that's one of the best ways we thought to label the dish we made for dinner tonight. This Mongolian Beef recipe did not only hit the mark on taste, but it was exceptionally easy and a snap to prepare.

Saying that, I did make some modifications to the original recipe... when I was going over the ingredient list for the sauce, the amounts, in my opinion, looked a little skimpy. I'm sure there would have been enough to coat the lean sirloin steak we would be using, but I wanted to make sure there was plenty to go around.

One-and-a-half times the amount sounded good at first, but as we thought about how we were going to serve the dish (over rice), I went ahead and added twice the amount. If you happen to not be on the saucy side, cut those ingredients in half. Soy sauce, granulated sugar, cornstarch (which tightens the sauce with a bit of gloss), dry sherry, hoisin, rice vinegar and a dollop of chile paste with garlic form the sauce, which when combined, will give you the important taste elements in this dish - salty, sweet, sour and a definitive punch of heat.

If you have had problems in the past thinly slicing meat for recipes like this (which as we know, always against the grain!), sticking the meat into the freezer is an option to think about. You don't want to freeze it solid - just enough that the meat firms, but still gives slightly if you poke it with your finger. We took those thin, beefy strips and arranged them into one of our largest skillets, along with brilliant fresh ginger and an abundance of minced fresh garlic - four cloves in our case. Cooked just enough to sear the outside, we then brought in green onions (I showed restraint with the amount, but add more if you like - Jeff can be finicky when he sees too many large onion-y pieces), which we followed shortly with the sauce.

With the cornstarch in the dark, glistening sauce, the liquids thickened in just a minute and before I knew it, I had the dishes plated and we were ready to eat! As mentioned, we did serve this over rice (brown basmati), but wide noodles would also be good, especially if you follow what we did and go heavy on the sauce. If you're unsure of the heat factor, tone the chile paste down to a teaspoon, then taste the sauce - if you don't find the heat adequate enough, spoon in a little more. Rather start too little than have it too hot for your taste!

Recipes
Mongolian Beef