The beef of a small Asian nation

Posted: February 27, 2010 | Author: Alyssa | Filed under: Alyssa | 2 Comments »

Last week I was in Boston at a job conference looking for a new job.  After ten interviews between the hours of 9 and 4:30, I was EXHAUSTED.  I don’t know if you have ever spent 9 hours in heels trying to look professional while running from table to table (think speed dating for jobs)  interviewing for various positions that you may or may not want (including an interview with a school in Bulgaria which was just ridiculous), but I don’t recommend it…at all.  I actually get to do it again this Friday in New York, but the stress of the event will be completely over shadowed by 3 things: 1) I get to see my 5month old nephew who is adorable and squishy and whom I haven’t seen since Christmas.  2) The PrettyGirls get together and all the antics that will ensue.  3) I get to see my best friend of 22 years whom I haven’t seen in way too freaking long and whom I miss terribly.

Anyway…after my crazy day in Boston, all I wanted to do was grab dinner, go back to the hotel room, and pass out face down on the bed for 12 hours.  Luckily, being in downtown Boston, there were tons of restaurants along the way back to the hotel so I stopped in at P.F. Changs and grabbed one of my favorite foods of all time: Mongolian Beef.  Between the crispy beef, the sauce and the ridiculous amount of green onion they put in, I could literally eat this every day.  However, distance and finances prevent this from happening.  Now, I don’t know if everyone knows this, but I enjoy my time in the kitchen, so I thought I would try to recreate my beloved dish and see how I fared.   I did some research to find a starting point, and actually found a pretty good recipe at recipezaar.  Its actually really easy to make and tasted close enough to the real thing to satisfy my craving.

While making this recipe I learned some things that you might want to keep in mind if you try this:

1. I sliced the beef ahead of time and marinated it for about an hour in a combination of soy sauce, ginger, garlic, sesame oil and brown sugar (basically just the sauce deconstructed).

2. You don’t need a lot of corn starch for the beef, just sprinkle each side very lightly.

3. Don’t let the sauce thicken too much because the thicker you let the sauce get, the more concentrated the flavor gets and there is such a thing as flavor that will kick your ass.

4.  Toss the beef in the sauce then pull it out with tongs, because this is not a dish where you want the extra sauce making the crispy beef soggy.

Overall an excellent project and I think I’m going to start trying to recreate more of my favorites from various restaurants.  Next up, the nacho cheese chicken chalupa from Taco Bell…I didn’t say it was going to be from class restaurants