This is a quick dish to put together and on the table, but I felt lacking in flavor. Perhaps it is one of those that tastes better the next day, but I never got the chance to eat it the next day.
Slice your beef thinly. I like to prepare all my ingredients ahead of time with stir fries because they cook so quickly. First cook your onions until they are soft and set aside. (I liked this because I could cook the onions and put them on my dish and not Bryan's!) Then cook your galric and ginger before tossing in the beef. After a minute or two add in your soy and stock. Let it cook for a few minutes before serving.
This dish needs veggies or something to go with it. It is not a stand alone meal. Perhaps a bag of frozen stir fry veggies would be a good side with it. I don't know. I wans't overly impressed.
Bryan and I added a lot of hot pepper paste to our beef and rice, which made it a little better.
This is not a good dish if you don't like onions. The onions are actually the vegetables. The original recipe is the Mongolian beef that you see served in the Chinese restaurant. The original Mongolian beef use a lot of chinese garlic chives. Since those are hard to find, many recipes on the web (search key "Mongolian beef") substitute them with green onions (about 10 pieces or 2 cups chopped). Mr. Bittman subtitutes with 2 to 3 large onions. The key to cook the onions is they must be camarelized as the book says. The only criticism I have on the recipe is the amount of Hoisin sauce needs to be doubled. Since Hoisin sauce is sweet, if you substitute it with soy sauce, you need to add some sugar. For example, if you use 2 tablespoon of soy sauce, I would add 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon of sugar. Mongolian beef needs to be sweet. If you want to add vegetables, my suggestion is one sweet pepper, juliened, or one shredded carrots. Paul.
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