Mongolian beef is a dish served in Chinese-American restaurants consisting of sliced beef, typically flank steak, and stir-fried with vegetables in a savory brown sauce, usually made with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and chili peppers. The beef is commonly paired with scallions or mixed vegetables and is known to be spicy. The dish is often served over crispy fried cellophane noodles or steamed rice.
The name of this dish is somewhat misleading, as aside from the beef, none of the ingredients or the preparation methods are drawn from traditional Mongolian cuisine. The term “Mongolian” is rather meant to imply an “exotic” type of food.
Mongolian Beef
Mongolian beef is a dish served in Chinese-American restaurants consisting of sliced beef, typically flank steak, and stir-fried with vegetables in a savory brown sauce, usually made with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and chili peppers.
Ingredients
- 8 oz beef tenderloin (thinly sliced)
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 2 stalks leeks/scallion (sliced diagonally)
- 1 inch ginger (finely chopped)
- 3 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
- Marinade:!
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon Chinese cooking wine (rice wine or Shaoxing wine)
Sauce:
- 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 3 dashes white pepper powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon Maggi seasoning
- 1 tablespoon sugar or to taste
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Marinate the beef slices with the seasonings for 30 minutes.
- Heat up a wok with 1 tablespoon of oil and stir-fry the marinated beef until they are half-done. Dish out and set aside.
- Heat up another 1 tablespoon of oil and saute the garlic and ginger until aromatic. Add the beef back into the wok and then the sauce.
- Continue to stir-fry until the beef slices are almost done, then add the leeks/scallions into the wok. Do a few quick stirs, add salt to taste, dish out and serve hot.
Photo credit: JaBB / flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND
