Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Mongolian Beef (with broccoli)

Ingredients: (I usually half all of this for just 2 of us)
For the meat:
1 lb. flank steak
1/4 C cornstarch
2 Tbsp oil
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For the sauce:
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp fresh ginger, grated finely or minced
1 Tbsp or about 2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 C soy sauce
1/2 C water
1/2 C brown sugar
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes- depending on how hot you like it. You can leave it out all together to be more like broccoli beef as well.
2 green onions, sliced
2 tsp. cornstarch mixed with a little water
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1-2 heads of broccoli, cut to florets - you could also just slice up an onion and stirfry it if you don't want broccoli with this.

Directions:

  1. Slice the steak against the grain thinly (1/4 in. or thinner). Tilt the knife blade at a 45 degree angle if you want a wider cut. Toss the steak slices with cornstarch and let the beef sit for 10 min. This is very important. Do not skip.
  2. To make the sauce: In a small sauce pan, heat 2 tsp oil, add garkic and ginger and stirfy 10 seconds, add soy sauce and the rest of the sauce ingredients except cornstarch. Bring it to a boil and then turn down very low while you do the rest of your prep. You will add the cornstarch slurry later.
  3. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Drop the broccoli in and blanch. Meaning, right after you get it submerged in the water, dump it all out in a colander.
  4. Heat 1-2 Tbsp. oil in a wok and heat over medium high. Stirfry the broccoli for 1 min. and remove.
  5. Turn the sauce back up to a boil and add the cornstarch slurry. Stir till it thickens, take off the heat.
  6. Put a 1-2 more Tbsp oil in the wok and heat again. Cook the beef. It will cook quickly. Don't over cook it.
  7. Add back the broccoli and stir in the sauce. Serve over rice.