Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Dinner AND a movie? Chinese Style: Mongolian Beef and Fortune Cookies from scratch!

MONGOLIAN BEEF:



Soo while i really love to make more desserts and such than actual meals, I really wanted to make some Chinese food. I found this recipe for Mongolian beef on http://www.recipezaar.com/66121 and it just happened to be a recipe like the Mongolian beef at P.F. Chang's which is my FAVORITE Chinese restaurant!
I changed the recipe a little by adding some broccoli around step 17, and cooking it in the sauce as well. I also found with this recipe it's much easier if you put out most of your ingredients at the beginning in the needed amounts, because it says to add lots of the ingredients quickly. I didn't have any dark brown sugar, however regular brown sugar worked just fine. In making it, I doubled the recipe since it says it only serves two, and I actually think doubling it can feed five, just make sure you make some rice along with it, we just made regular steamed rice.
Overall I LOVED this recipe! I actually think it t
asted a little better than P.F. Changs! It seemed sweeter though, which while i like that, my mom likes things spicy and not sweet, so you might want to take that into consideration in trying this. A little time consuming, but well worth it in the end.

Ingredients

  • 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced
  • 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • vegetable oil, for frying (about 1 cup)
  • 1 lb flank steak
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 2 large green onion
  • Directions

    1. 1
      Make the sauce by heating 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over med/low heat.
    2. 2
      Don't get the oil too hot.
    3. 3
      Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches.
    4. 4
      Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise the heat to about medium and boil the sauce for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thic kens.
    5. 5
      Remove it from the heat.
    6. 6
      Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4" thick bite-size slices.
    7. 7
      Tilt the blade of your knife at about a forty five degree angle to the top of the steak so that you get wider cuts.
    8. 8
      Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef.
    9. 9
      Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks.
    10. 10
      As the beef sits, heat up one cup of oil in a wok (you may also use a skillet for this step as long as the beef will be mostly covered with oil).
    11. 11
      Heat the oil over medium heat until it's nice and hot, but not sm oking.
    12. 12
      Add the beef to the oil and sauté for just two minutes, or until the beef just begins to darken on the edges.
    13. 13
      You don't need a thorough cooking here since the beef is going to go back on the heat later.
    14. 14
      Stir the meat around a little so that it cooks evenly.
    15. 15
      After a couple minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and onto paper towels, then pour the oil out of the wok or skillet.
    16. 16
      Put the pan back over the heat, dump the meat b ack into it and simmer for one minute.
    17. 17
      Add the sauce, cook for one minute while stirring, then add all the green onions.
    18. 18
      Cook for one more minute, then remov e the be ef and onions with tongs or a slotted spoon to a serving plate.
    19. 19
      Leave the excess sauce behind in the pan.



    DESSERT: FABULOUS CHOCOLATE-SPRINKLE FORTUNE COOKIES!















    After a great chinese meal , you have to have Fortune Cookies of course!! I
    found this recipe at About.com, and while they tasted great, I ended up having some trouble forming them to actually looking like fortune cookies. In the end one turned out right, and the rest wern't so great looking. I quirked the recipe a little. Adding my own flare, i put sprinkles in many of them, and instead of fortunes, since they were just for my family, I put chocolate chips in them before folding them over, this melted in the still-warm co okies, and tasted fabulous!

    INGREDIENTS:
    • 2 large egg whites
    • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
    • 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
    • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
    • 8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 8 tablespoons granulated sugar
    • 3 teaspoons water
    • (If you make it my way) Some colored sprinkles and a few mini chocolate chips (depending on if you want them all this way or not)

    PREPARATION:

    1. Write fortunes on pieces of paper that are 3 1/2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 2 9-X-13 inch baking sheets.
    2. In a medium bowl, lightly beat the egg white, vanilla extract, almond extract and vegetable oil until frothy, but not stiff.
    3. Sift the flour, cornstarch, salt and sugar into a separate bowl. Stir the water into the flour mixture.

    4. Add the flour into the egg white mixture and stir until you have a smooth batter. The batter should not be runny, but should drop easily off a wooden spoon. Note: if you want to dye the fortune cookies, add the food coloring at this point, stirr ing it into the batter. For example, I used 1/2 teaspoon green food coloring to make green fortune cookies.
    5. Place level tablespoons of batter onto the cookie sheet, spacing them at least 3 inches apart. Gently tilt the baking sheet back and forth and from side to side so that each tablespoon of batter forms into a circle 4 inches in diameter.
    6. Bake until the outer 1/2-inch of each cookie turns golden brown and they are easy to remove from the baking sheet with a spatula (14 - 15 minutes).
    7. Working quickly, remove the cookie with a spatula a
    nd flip it over in your hand. Place a fortune in the middle of a cookie. To form the fortune cookie shape, fold the cookie in half, then gently pull the edges downward over the rim of a glass, wooden spoon or the edge of a muffin tin. Place the finished cookie in the cup of the muffin tin so that it keeps its shape. Continue with the rest of the cookies.
    (this is obviously the part where i failed. Learn from my mistakes, and just use the end of a big spoon or spatula to fold it over at the end. I was confused because I couldn't see how this affected the end result, however it does mold them to actuall y look like fortune cookies.)

    My one Good Fortune cookie: This is how they should turn out!


    Crazy Funny Asian Prank (kinda fits with the theme):

    0 comments: