Sunday Rewind: Maggie Monday – Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

– Originally posted May 21, 2012.As The Rantings of an Amateur Chef has been going since February of 2012, there are quite a few readers that have joined along the way. In an effort to bring back some great recipes that they may have missed, I will dedicate Sundays to re-posting a favorite that is at least two years old. I hope you enjoy! – The Ranting Chef

Pinterest is an interesting phenomenon. You beg to belong and once inside the (not really) exclusive club, you get to be a voyeur into what others like about the internet. As a food blogger, it makes it so easy to find new recipes. It is also interesting to see how one of your recipes makes it around the service. We have quite a bit of visitors that come to us from Pinterest and I like to trace the visit back to see the dozen layers of “repinning” to the original source. Welcome Pinteresters (Pinteresti…Pinterestians…) and welcome back Maggie…

A lot of folks out there complain about their new Pinterest addictions. I  enjoy Pinterest a great deal and have been able to manage well on about 30 minutes a week. I find lots of cool things, and recipes are at the top of the list. Just like with any internet recipe, just because it is posted, doesn’t mean it’s good! As with anything I am about to purchase, I read reviews before deciding to actually try a recipe. This one was promising… but I’ve been here before with slow cooker recipes. Reviews were great,… As I noted in my Crock Pot Creamed Corn post, I am constantly searching for palatable slow cooker recipes. They are sadly few and far between.  With cautious optimism, I decided to try. One. More. Crockpot. Recipe.

It was good!!! Thanks to “someone”  for pinning this Crock Pot Mongolian Beef recipe from the Very Culinary blog. This is a repeater. The only down side is that it should only cook about 4 hours. So, with my work schedule it won’t be a weeknight dish, it will be great for a busy weekend. And- It. Is. Good. Really, actually good.

I was being super-lazy, so used a microwave rice packet, but steaming rice would make this even better. I didn’t have cooking sherry on hand (oops@ need to add the to the shopping list! Didn’t know I was out!)  so I just doubled the white wine. I was tempted to purchase a cheaper cut of meat than the Flank Steak called for in the recipe. I am glad I splurged and bought the pricier Flank Steak. The meat was tender and flavorful. Worth the $7-8. We’ll get 6 servings from this, so the per serving cost is pretty good.

The recipe looks long, but it is mostly spices. In fact, I had everything on hand except the steak. (oh, and the sherry!) So happy that I have one more crockpot recipe I can count on!

Crock Pot Mongolian Beef

What you need:

1 ½ pound flank steak, sliced thinly

¼ cup corn starch

½ cup soy sauce

¼ cup white wine

¼ cup cooking sherry

1T white wine vinegar

1 t sesame oil

1 t molasses

1 t ground ginger

1 t dried minced onion

¼ t ground black pepper

¼ t red chili flakes

3T brown sugar

1T peanut butter- creamy

3 cloves minced garlic

4 scallions, chopped

What to do:

Set aside the sliced steak and the cornstarch. Mix all remaining ingredients, adding the peanut butter last. Mix this well. Place the thinly sliced meat in a bowl, and sprinkle with the corn starch. Stir this about until each slice of meat is well coated. Take out each slice of meat, shake off excess cornstarch, and place it in the sauce mixture. Gently toss the meat in the sauce. Pour it all into the crock pot. (I used a small 2 quart cooker) and cook on low for 4 hours. Serve over white rice.