- Jun 28, 2022
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I have not tried Lau's Mongolian Beef recipe but the recipe I did use was pretty much the best tasting Mongolian Beef I've ever eaten. Lau cooks very similar to an old friend I had that owned a Chinese restaurant in Arizona (uses a LOT of oil), and he gave me my first stir-fry lessons while yelling at the top of his lungs at me in Chinese! The kitchen was frightening - grease everywhere - but man he could cook! That guy made a seared salmon I brought in for us to eat once that I still never tasted anything as good! The noise that came out of the kitchen when he slid the salmon into his wok was chilling I thought for sure the place was on fire...Love the Lau stuff but not a fan of his process. Not saying it's wrong, just not for me. I realize there are many ways to approach this style of cooking. IE my stock has ginger, garlic, and green onion in it so I don't have to add to the cook. It is a milder flavor and I can see someone one wanting it bolder but I like it that way. Same with all that protein prep: rinsing, marinading, velveting and deep frying. Use a LITTLE oil and fry. Ideally, this leaves little if any oil to dispose of. In fact, I have a few books that advocate DRY stir frying beef. Gives more mailliard. Plan to fool with that later. That being said, if you are into it by all means do it. Just know if you omit it you will need to add corn starch to thicken the sauce.
I bet 15k works as the wok is pretty thin. My burner is 40k BTU and do not have it up halfway.
My immediate goal is getting the new wok heat treated and seasoned and then I can start fine-tuning recipes - but I am not changing anything about the Mongolian Beef recipe I used and linked - and yes, I ate the chiles de arbol too!