Mongolian Beef

This recipe for Mongolian Beef was part of our "copy-cat" list. Supposedly it comes from P.F. Chang. I wouldn't know about that, but I do know it's a dish we'd like. (And it was.)

Mongolian Beef

• 1 pound flank steak, sliced thinly against the grain
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 green onions, sliced into quarters
• Butter lettuce, for serving

Dredge steak in cornstarch. Heat oil in a frying pan, and quickly sear steak. Add garlic and ginger, then stir in soy sauce, water and brown sugar and bring to a boil. Stir in green onions, then serve in lettuce cups. If desired, garnish with additional sliced green onions and/or sesame seeds.

Rice noodles seems like a great side dish to serve with this. I found a recipe to try at Served From Scratch. While the rice sticks are soaking in hot water, melt some butter and cook a bit of garlic and sliced scallions (or green onions). Add some coconut sugar (or brown sugar) and soy sauce, then add the drained noodles and serve.

Note that there seemed to be enough sauce from the beef, so instead of creating a new sauce (particularly since it seemed fairly identical to the Mongolian Beef sauce), after scooping the beef into the lettuce cups, I added the softened rice noodles to the pan, gave it a good stir, then served them onto the plate. 

Although the lettuce was a wonderful complement to the beef, we think our family would have preferred rice as a base for the sauce. We'll try it that way next time.