Friday night, I decided to stay in and cook dinner for the bf and my parents. Bf requested Mongolian beef- similar to that of PF Chang’s. So I scoured the internet, and added a few flairs of my own to this dish. Turned out really good although a tad sweet! If you would like spicy I would recommend adding a bit of hot pepper, or even just some crushed red pepper flakes.
This is the start of my second week of (trying) to count macros. While this dish isn’t the healthiest, I measured out my portions and was able to enjoy it all the same!
The beef in this dish was tender and flavorful- I was careful not to over cook the beef- I hate when I order an Asian beef dish (that sounds dirty to me some how?) and the meat comes out tough and overcooked- almost rubbery. Be sure to follow the cooking directions below to avoid this.
Ingredients
- 1 lb flank steak (sliced thin- about 1/4″ against the grain)
- 2 Tbsp fresh minced ginger
- 3 Tbsp fresh minced or pressed garlic
- 3-4 Tbsp cornstarch
- 4 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp Fish sauce
- 2 Tbsp Oyster sauce
- 1/4 c Soy Sauce
- 1/2 c brown sugar
- 1/4 c water
- 2 c snow peas
- Lightly dredge sliced flank steak in cornstarch.
- Heat oil in HOT skillet. Drop the steak in and stir around until steak is cooked just to about medium rare.
- Take steak out, lightly toss in remaining cornstarch.
- In same skillet, sautee ginger and olive oil. Add water, oyster sauce, fish sauce soy sauce and brown sugar. Whisk until sugar is disolved and let simmer for approximately 2 minutes.
- Add beef and snow peas in. Sautee for about 3 more minutes- sauce should thicken and beef should just be turning brown. (You are adding the beef back in here so it hasn’t been sitting in the wok, overcooking. Overcooking this cut of beef will yeild a rubbery, tough product- especially since it has been sliced thin!)
Serve over white rice.
You can also make a vegetarian version of this dish: my parents are vegetarian so I made two versions tonight. AND, my mom doesn’t eat sugar. SO- the sauce was out. I subbed out the beef for cubed egg plant, and used extra ginger, garlic, soy in her version. She had seconds (which is very usual for her!) I tasted the vegan version, but I myself prefer the beef.
If you don’t have oyster sauce and/or fish sauce (you can find both of these in the Asian section at the grocery, or the “world foods” section”) you can add a bit more soy.
And, if you don’t think you’d want to buy Fish Sauce or Oyster Sauce because you wouldn’t ever use it again and it would go to waste-that’s not the case! Both of these sauces go GREAT with veggies ( i.e. green beans, asparagus and broccoli) as well as any stir fry. You can pair it with soy sauce, and use it on almost any meat for an Asian style dish. Beware there is quite a bit of sugar in both sauces- so if you’re watching your sugar intake be sure to measure out the portions properly.
xo Kelli
that looks yummy 🙂