Mongolian Beef
I bought a new 'slow cooker' this year. I wanted to move away from the teflon coated version I have had for years, and looked at the Greenpan appliances first as I know them to be PFAS free. (I have some of their excellent non stick frying pans, so I was already across this brand and its amazing technology around non stick cookware.) They have only been around for 15 years but have disrupted the non stick cookware globally with their amazing ceramic, completely sustainable technology.
SO, I ordered what I thought was a slow cooker. It turned out to be so much more. It is a slow cooker, but it also has a stir fry function which is hotter than I can ever get my wok, at a steady 230°C. It is easy to clean, it has a large capacity, it has soup, slow cooking and a keep warm function (to mention a few) and I am using it at least once a week, which is a lot for someone who is a Thermomix recipe developer!
Anyway, if you have a wok, you can do this recipe too, but I would check out the Power Pan if you are in the market for any of the above mentioned appliances.
This is such a simple recipe I have made it a couple of times now (which is also a rare occurrence!)
I think if you spend the time to marinate the meat, you can use a tougher cut, like topside. The first time I made it I used eye fillet and it did melt in the mouth, but it was pricey. So the next time I made it I changed to topside and it still melted in the mouth, but fed a lot more for the same spend. You can add other veggies of choice, but I went with peppers and broccoli which are traditional. Also you could add coriander leaves if you had some. SO delicious.
The marinade has cornflour in it and I wanted to tell you a bit about that. Years ago when working with Chrys Lim on the Taste of Asia cookbook for Thermomix in Australia, we used to do this process, always with white pepper and cornflour plus whatever else. I didn't really get why, but Chrys was the expert, so that is what we did.
Years later, I find out that this method of marinating protein in a cornflour slurry (with or without other flavours) is called velveting. It has an amazing end result, as it tenderises the protein extremely well and means that a stir fry or fried piece of meat, chicken or seafood, is super tender and melt in the mouth! I am now a little hooked, so watch out, this technique may show up regularly in other recipes.
My other note for you on this recipe is to use a low sodium soy sauce or it becomes a little too salty and unpleasantly so. Alternatively, swap in tamari and add more water in both the dressing and the marinade mixtures. You are basically cooking beef in soy sauce, so of course you want the flavour, but not the salt so much.
I hope you love this recipe and put it on regular rotation. Serve with rice or noodles, or even stir cooked noodles through the beef right at the end and serve it as Mongolian beef noodles. There you go, two recipes in one. You're welcome!
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Need
-
Beef and Marinade
- 1 Kilo topside, sliced thinly across the grain
- 1/2 Cup soy sauce salt reduced which is pretty essential (see my blurb above)
- 2 Tablespoons cornflour or cornstarch
- 2 Tablespoons water
- 1 Teaspoon white pepper
-
The Sauce
- 1/2 Cup soy sauce or tamari
- 80 Grams Chilli Jam Recipe
- 40 Grams shaoxing Chinese wine or you could use rice wine vinegar
- 40 Grams coconut sugar
- 2 Tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 2 Tablespoons cornflour or cornstarch
- 1/2 Cup water
- 1 Teaspoon white pepper
-
The Rest
- A good dash Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) and more as needed BUY
- 2 heads of broccoli, florets only
- 2 capsicum/bell pepper red, green cut into pieces
- 40 Grams fresh ginger finely minced
- 6 cloves garlic finely minced
- 4-6 spring onions, cut into 10cm lengths
- steamed rice to serve
- OR noodles to serve
Do
- 1
Prepare the beef and place into a large ziploc bag. Place all the marinade ingredients into a jug and whisk together. Pour over the beef and massage in to make sure the beef is fully coated. You can now leave this for up to 48 hours in the fridge. I think a minimum for marinading is 1 hour.
- 2
Place all the sauce ingredients into a jug and whisk together until well combined. This will separate slightly, but just re-whisk as needed.
- 3
Heat some EVOO in a wok or on stir fry mode in a Greenpan power pan, and sear the beef in batches. Don't overload the pan as you will not get the nice browning you are looking for. Remove all the meat and keep hot in a Thermoserver or insulated dish.
- 4
Reheat the pan so it is hot again, add a bit more EVOO and sauté the broccoli and caspicums, push them to the sides of the pan and sauté the ginger and garlic. Bring it all together by placing the beef back into the pan. Add the sauce, and toss well so that everything is coated and top with the spring onions. Allow to cook down for a couple of minutes until the sauce starts to thicken. This should only take 1-2 minutes.
- 5
Serve immediately with either steamed rice or even fried rice. A noodle dish full of other veggies is also a great accompaniment.
Served with
Tenina Holder is a wife, mother of five and grandmother of eight, who started cooking in the olden days before Thermomix was even a thing.
Tenina has become the premium go to source for all Thermomix expertise and of course fresh and easy recipes that work. Her cooking classes and foodie trips are sold out in literally hours, her cookbooks appear on the Australian best seller lists and her social reach is in the millions. Her Insider Club is the most fun you can have with a Thermomix and you really should join her! She believes chocolate, butter and salt are health foods. Her food positivity mantra is, eat everything, just not all at once!
