Tasty eastern-style Mongolian beef

This delicious dish is the perfect way to spice up your weekly dinner plans.

It’s easy to make and uses many ingredients you probably already have in your pantry, with  ginger, garlic, soy sauce and rice vinegar creating an exotic eastern flavour and brown sugar to balance it out.  The key to getting this dish right is to make sure you don’t overcook the meat, though – you want it tender so it infuses with the other flavours, but not cooked so well that it’s tough.

Served with steamed rice and Asian greens like bok choy, it makes a balanced, and yummy, meal.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds beef tenderloin/beef chuck, cut into strips
• ½ cup cornstarch/cornflour
• oil, for deep frying

The Sauce

• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
• 1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
• ½ cup soy sauce
• ½ cup rice vinegar
• ½ cup water
• 1 tsp hoisin sauce 
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cornstarch, diluted in 3 tsp water
• 1 tsp red chili flakes
• ½ cup green onion, diced

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan.
2. Evenly coat the beef strips in the cornstarch.
3. Fry the beef in the pan for 4-5 minutes then drain the oil from the pan and set aside the beef in a small bowl.
4. To start making the sauce heat the cooking oil in a saucepan on the high setting.
5. When hot add the ginger and garlic stirring for 10 seconds.
6. Quickly add the soy sauce, water, rice vinegar and hoisin sauce to the saucepan and bring it to a fast boil.
7. Once boiling, add the brown sugar and cornstarch and mix until combined and dissolved.
8. Add the beef strips back in and let the mixture cook for 2 minutes.
9. Now add the green onions and let the mixture cook for cook for 1 minute.
10. To finish off the dish serve it with some hot rice.

Tip: For a spicier dish add in some chilli flakes at step 5.

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