Mongolian Beef

I've never had Mongolian Beef with ground beef before, but that is exactly what Kylie Kwong suggests in her recipe for it in her Simply Chinese Cooking cookbook. I would prefer to learn a recipe using flank steak or something similar to what I get when I order Chinese takeout, but I agree with Kylie, the ground beef gives this dish a light texture and it hold the flavor really well. I don't think it tasted the same as it does when I order takeout, but I liked it anyways.

This is a dish I think everyone will love. It's kind of like tacos. Just good flavor with ground beef. In fact, I used the leftovers for some breakfast tacos. So I crossed cuisines from asian stir-fry over to tex-mex. It seems like you can put anything in breakfast tacos, so I thought "why not"? I scrambled a few eggs and then mixed in the leftovers while reheating and then wrapped them up in a flour tortilla. It was really good. Look for a roundup of this month's Leftover Tuesdays at ceres & bacchus next week.

Mongolian Beef (serves 4) 1 lb. 4 oz. quality ground beef 5 cups finely shredded Chinese cabbage 2 teaspoons sea salt 1/4 cup vegetable oil 2 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce 1 tablespoon oyster sauce 1 teaspoon malt vinegar 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil 1 small carrot, peeled and finely sliced 1/2 medium-sized red pepper, finely sliced 3/4 cup finely sliced scallions Marinade: 2 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry 1 tablespoon light soy sauce 1 tablespoon cornstarch 1 tablespoon finely diced ginger 3 garlic cloves, finely diced 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Combine ground beef with marinade ingredients in a large bowl, cover, and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, place cabbage and salt in a large bowl, mixing together well with your hands to combine. Stand for 15 minutes then rinse under cold water and drain. Use your hands to squeeze out any excess liquid.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a hot wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly. Add half the marinated beef and stir-fry for 30 seconds, breaking up any lumps with a wok spoon. Remove from the wok with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add remaining oil to hot wok, stir in remaining beef and cook, stirring for 30 seconds. Return reserved beef mixture to the wok with wine or sherry, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar and sesame oil and stir-fry for 30 seconds.

Toss in reserved cabbage, carrot and pepper and stir-fry for a further minute. Stir through scallions, reserving just a little to garnish, and remove from heat.

Spoon beef into a serving bowl, sprinkle with remaining scallions and serve.

crosscut stump stew

So, now that I have my own food blog, I can participate in tons of online food blogging events. Shaun of Winter Skies Kitchen Aglow is hosting this week's Weekend Cookbook Challenge. He has chosen STEW as the theme. Sara of I Like to Cook is the creater of this challenge and designates a different food blogger each week to host the event and select the theme.

As soon as i read the that the theme would be stews, I knew exactly what i wanted to cook. There is an interesting recipe for Crosscut Stump Stew in I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris. Actually, the stew looks like any other good and hearty beef stew. What drew me to it however was how she wrote about it in her book. Amy is a comedian and she separated the chapters of her book in a quite unique way. Since the book is about entertaining, each chapter is for a target audience of people you would have a party for. This stew is featured in her lumberjack section. Yes, you read correctly. There is a chapter in the book dedicated to having a party for lumberjacks. In addition to recipes, she suggests party favors and decoration ideas. Her featured stain removal tip in the lumberjack chapter is for mud:

Make sure that the mud stain on the rug has dried. Vacuum the dirt off. Take some laundry soap and work it into the stain. This should work. If not just turn the rug over and deny it ever happened.

The stew recipe is pretty basic. As I prepared my shopping list, I realised I have never made a simple stew before. I have not made that many stews before period. But the ones I have prepared have been made something with gourmet-type ingredients. Also, I have only made stews in my slower cooker and never made one stove-top or in the oven. I was excited to try this one and get a good basic stew under my belt.

I'm not sure if I like Amy's recipe style. She is not very exact. I am one who prefers to follow recipes exactly and I want to know the minimum amount of each ingredient to add to the dish. If a recipe adds a "to taste" I am fine, but i don't like how her recipe just calls for "sugar" with no specific amount. I had never cooked a stew like this before and was unsure of how sugar will effect the taste. However, I can go with the flow and just figured it out. I suppose this is why many chefs suggest you taste at each step.

Amy suggests serving the stew with a stack of white bread and oatmeal raisin cookies.

Crosscut Stump Stew (serves one lumberjack or six people) 2 pounds of stewing beef (cut into 2-inch cubes) 3 Tbsp. olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 cup tomato puree 1/2 cup of red wine 2 Tbsp. of wine vinegar 1 bay leaf 1 3-inch cinnamon stick 4 whole cloves Sugar Salt and pepper 1 1/2 pounds of small pearl onions

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown your cubed beef on all sides in a pan of hot oil and then transfer to a casserole dish. Add onion and garlic to the pan. Add more oil or butter if you need to, fry until the onion is soft. Add tomato puree, wine, and vinegar and stir. Pour this over the meat cubes in the casserole dish, and add the bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves, sugar and salt and pepper.

Cover and cook in over for 1 hour, or cook on stove, slowly. While beef is cooking, boil a pan of water. Remove roots and tops of pearl onions. Crosscut (score) the root end and place in a bowl. Cover in boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain off water. The skins will slip off easily. Add the onions to stew and continue to simmer on low until the meat and onions are tender and the sauce is thick. (About 1 1/2 hours longer).