Better Than Takeout...
I love Chinese food. It is seriously one of my favorite takeout night meals. I feel lucky that my little town even has a Chinese takeout place. It is one of three places we can order from. The other two are pizza/sub places... and one of those is also a gas station. Do you see where I’m going with this? There aren’t many dining options in my town. So, I’m all in when I find recipes that have the potential to be “better than takeout.” And yes, this recipe IS better than takeout.
I realize that the title of this recipe, Crock-Pot Mongolian Beef (found here), informs you that a crock-pot is involved, but I completely forgot this. I was getting ready to head out to the grocery store on Saturday afternoon to get my ingredients. I checked the recipe and was reminded that this was a crock-pot recipe. NOOOO! I was sure that I missed my window because crock-pot recipes take hours and hours, and it was already 2:00 in the afternoon. Nope. Three hours tops. It was all good.
This recipe is simply awesome. I loved the zing that the ginger brought, and the fact that it comes together on its own in the crock-pot makes it a no-brainer! It was yummy AND easy! I used stir-fry beef and plan on using this cut again. Keeping this in mind, it definitely didn’t take three hours to cook through. Two hours seemed about right. The beef gets coated in cornstarch, which thickens the sauce right about the time you think, “Hmmm. I wonder if this sauce will thicken.” For me, the sauce was just a smidge too thick. Next time, I will coat one-half to three-quarters of the beef to combat this.
Mom
"I just love Chinese food. My favorite is number 27"
- Clement Atlee
I love Chinese food. I just don't make it very often. Aside for a few months, 35 years ago, when my husband took a Chinese cooking class, our Chinese cooking has been limited to a few favorite stir fry recipes. Besides, there is always a local Chinese restaurant with some tasty takeout.
This week's recipe is good in so many ways. Ingredients are on hand, it mixes up in about 10 minutes, it tastes great, AND it goes in the crock pot! What could be better? I have to confess I used stew meat instead of flank steak, or packaged stir fry beef. It was in my freezer and needed to be used, and I just didn't want to go out to the store, even though it's only around the corner.
I was amazed the beef was done after simmering, on high, for only 3 hours. The sauce was spicy sweet and thickened nicely at the right moment. Actually, be sure to check the sauce toward the end of the cooking time because it thickens very quickly. You want a sauce that coats a spoon and isn't too thick. There was plenty of sauce to serve over the beef and rice. Since I'm only cooking for two, there was enough leftover for another meal. I put it in the freezer to pull out on one of those days when there's no time to cook.
Would I make this again? Most definitely! It passed the "Honey, Would you eat this again?", with five "yums" up.
CROCK-POT MONGOLIAN BEEF
PREP TIME: 20 mins
COOK TIME: 3 hours
SERVE: 4
Ingredients:
- 2 teaspoons canola oil
- ½ teaspoon ginger, minced
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- ½-1 cup soy sauce (1/2 cup per pound)
- ½-1 cup water (1/2 cup per pound)
- ¾-1 cup dark brown sugar (3/4 cup for ½ pound or 1 cup for 2)
- 1-2 lb of stir fry ready beef
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 2 large green onions, chopped
Instructions:
- Coat your flank steak with cornstarch and let rest
- Take the back of your knife and peel your piece of ginger and mince
- Turn Crock on High
- Mince Garlic and add into crock along with chopped green onion and ginger ( I used more garlic, than stated, use as much or as little as you want)
- Add in soy sauce, water, sugar, and oil
- Stir to combine
- Add in stir fry beef
- Let cook on high for 2-3 hours or until tender.
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