Crispy Sticky Mongolian Beef

1. I have fried this in just 1/4 cup of oil which works well, it requires more tossing to get the beef to brown evenly all over and become crispy, but you do end up with uneven browning which doesn't matter because it's tossed in sauce. The other way isto shallow fry in about 3/4 cm / 1/3" of oil in the skillet - about 1 to 1 1/2 cups.

2. You could also substitute with Mirin or Cooking Sake. If you use Mirin, reduce the sugar by 1 tbsp.

3. Beef -As with all stir fries, this cooks very quickly so you need to use a decent cut of beef for it. Rump, flank, sirloin, t-bone and scotch fillet are excellent for this recipe.

Slice the beef against the grain. When you look at the beef, you will notice that the fibres are mostly going in one direction. Place the beef in front of you so the fibres are going left to right. Then cut through the fibres i.e. cut perpendicular to the direction of the fibres (see here for illustrative image). Cutting it this way makes the beef more tender!

Slow cooking cuts, like chuck, are not suitable unless you tenderise it (seeHow to tenderise beef the Chinese restaurant way)

4. If you don't have a wok, do this part in a small saucepan. It won't work in a skillet because the surface area is too large so the oil spreads too thinly. After cooking the beef, transfer 2 tbsp of oil from the saucepan into a skillet to cook the sauce and beef.

For the purpose of sharing this recipe on my blog, I made it in a frypan (to make sure it worked cooking the beef in a saucepan). But usually I make this in my wok!

5. This recipe is adapted from The Woks of Life. This blog is my "go to" trusted source for American Chinese recipes. It is run by a Chinese American family who used to own a restaurant - doesn't get anymore reliable than that!!

6. Nutrition assuming this serves 3. I measured the amount of oil discarded to calculate the nutrition.