Chinese Sizzling Steak



In the little city where we live we have six Chinese restaurants and yet when we want Sizzling Steak we have to travel 45 minutes out of our way to order it.  We won't have to do that again, I am pleased to say.  This recipe tastes virtually identical to the restaurant version that we enjoy. Tender slices of beef with golden onions and a sweet-spicy cause to crown it.  Oh so good!  Ole Sweetie-Pi couldn't stop eating it and put dibs on the leftovers.

A couple of  caveats:  there is some advance preparation time that needs to be factored in, and recipe uses  several different pans to cook in. 

Chinese Sizzling Steak
(The Recipelink.com) 

1 pound steak, cut into thin strips
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3 onions, peeled and cut into wedges
4 tablespoons oil, divided

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon white wine

Slice the meat thinly (slices easiest when slightly frozen) and flatten with a meat mallet. Put into a large bowl.  Combine water and baking and pour over steak.  Let marinate one hour to tenderize the meat.  Drain the meat.

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a wok or pan, add steak, and toss steak over very high heat to evaporate the water and then remove steak from pan. Set aside.  Drain oil from pan and put pan back on flame and add two tablespoons oil.  Add back the steak and cook until well browned.  Once again remove steak from pan and set aside.

Put a cast iron steak plate or a cast iron pan in a very hot (375*F) oven for about ten minutes or until it's very hot.

Heat remaining tablespoon of oil in the wok and add the onion wedges.  Saute until golden brown and crispy and then remove from the pan, keeping warm.

Return steak to pan and toss one minute.  Add Worcestershire and tomato sauces and sugar, stirring until sauce boils, reduce heat and simmer two minutes. 

Carefully remove hot cast iron pan from oven and place on wooden base or trivet.  Arrange onions on steak plate.  Spoon meat and sauce over onions.  Pour wine over the steak plate to give it that characteristic sizzle.

PDQ&E Sweet and Sour Chicken

I received an email newsletter from Allrecipes.com which featured a this sweet and sour sauce.  The ingredients are simple and ones we typically have on hand, so combined with the fact that we enjoy sweet and sour when we eat out, this recipe immediately caught my eye.

Yum, this was good!   The sauce is piquant, almost too sharp with the sweet and sour flavor (it makes me sneeze, smiles), but I know it's one that we'll be using often.

The recipe is for the sauce only, so how you use it, is up to you.  We often have bits of fresh vegetable left over, and, so this was an delicious way to use them up, plus give them a new interest; what you add and how much is left up to you.

For the sweet and sour chicken, I used two breasts, cut into generous bite-sized pieces, breaded.  Using a pan large enough that will eventually  hold the vegetables, chicken, and sauce, pan fry the chicken over medium heat until golden. Remove chicken from pan and set  chicken aside.

Wipe out the pan, place over heat, and add a little bit of oil.  Add your vegetables and cook until onions are translucent and peppers are crisp-tender.  I had half a green pepper,  half a red pepper, and half an onion. Carrots or celery cut on the diagonal might have been a nice addition, too.  I had some pineapple chunks, added those, too.

Add the chicken back to the vegetables, pour the prepared sauce over, and let it come to a gentle simmer for 3 or 4 minutes.  Serve hot.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

3/4 cup white sugar

1/3 cup white vinegar

2/3 cup water

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon ketchup

2 tablespoons cornstarch, mixed with 2 tablespoons water

Put all the ingredients in a medium sized saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture has thickened. If the sauce seems a little too thick, add more water. 

Makes about 2 cups of sauce.

This would be a terrific sauce for sweet and sour meatballs.

P. F. Chang's Mongolian Beef

I love the P. F. Chang's in Boston. I went there, in my first limousine(!), with a group of co-workers for a Christmas gathering and then we went to a play in the theater district that's nearby. I don't remember a lot about the play, but I do remember I loved the food. After having dined there it was difficult to enjoy Chinese food any place else; their food is just that good.

I was fortunate enough to find this fabulous recipe for Mongolian Beef on Meemo's Kitchen. Have you visited Pattie's blog there? She has a ton of super secret and copycat restaurant recipes: Olive Garden, Outback, Red Lobster, Hard Rock Cafe, just to name a few. I spent a looong time there perusing all those delicious recipes and she has a ton I want to try!

I didn't have the Mongolian Beef on my only trip to P. F. Chang's so I can't swear to its authenticity, but I can swear that Ole Sweetie-Pi devoured his dinner when I served him this.
If you like the flavor of teriyaki beef, I think you'd enjoy this as well. For us, this is an absolutely keeper recipe!

P. F. Chang's® Mongolian Beef

Sauce

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 pound flank steak (to make slicing easier, put the beef in the freezer for 30-45 minutes to freeze slightly)
1/4 cup cornstarch
4-6 large green onions

For the sauce:

Heat 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add ginger and garlic to the pan. Quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches. If your oil is too hot, this may splatter, so be careful. Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then bring the heat up to medium heat and allow the sauce to boil for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat.

Slice the slightly frozen flank steak against the grain into 1/4-inch thick slices. 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.

Coat the steak pieces with a very thin coating of the cornstarch on both sides of each piece of beef. Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks.

Heat one cup of oil in a wok or skillet over medium heat until it's hot, but not smoking. Add the beef to the oil and sauté for two minutes, or until the beef just begins to darken on the edges. Stir the meat so that it cooks evenly. After a couple minutes, use a large slotted spoon or a spider to take the meat out and onto paper towels.

Pour the oil out of the wok or skillet. Put the pan back over the heat, add the meat back into the wok or skillet and simmer for one minute. Add the sauce, cook for one minute while stirring. Add the green onions. Cook for one more minute, then remove the beef and onions with tongs or a slotted spoon to a serving plate. Leave the excess sauce behind in the pan.

Servings: 2

Sweet & Sour Pork

One of my favorite meals that my mother made was a sweet and sour pork dish that she called "puck-eye." With what seemed like only a few ingredients she was able to make a dinner that my brothers and I have longed remembered and reminisce about. This is not her recipe, but it is one that I've had and loved for over thirty years and to me, makes what's served in restaurants pale in comparison. The vegetables are tender crisp, the pork is marinated and separately stir fried, and the sauce has a very good balance of sweet and sour. For me, there is no better recipe than this for sweet and sour pork. Sweetie-Pi agrees.


There are a number of steps to this recipe, and typical with Chinese food, most of the time is spent in preparation. It is probably not a weekday meal, but I can virtually guarantee that if you like sweet and sour, you'll love this!

Sweet and Sour Pork
(copied from a Sunset cookbook back in the early 70's, and moved with me countless times)

The Vegetables
1 medium sized onion, cut in 1-inch chunks
1 cup sliced celery (sliced diagonally about 1/4 inch thick)
2 carrots, sliced diagonally about 1/8 inch thick)
1-inch piece ginger root, peeled and cut into thin slivers, optional
1 thin cucumber, sliced 1/8 inch thick (I omit this!)
1 green pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch squares (I used a green and a red for color)
1 can (about 5 oz) bamboo shoots, drained
2 tablespoons sesame seed, lightly toasted in frying pan (omitted because Sweetie-Pi has a sensitivity to seeds)

Sweet and Sour Sauce: Mix 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 teaspoons cornstarch, 1/2 cup cider vinegar, 1 1/2 cup pineapple juice and 2 tablespoons soy sauce in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring until sauce thickens and becomes clear.

Marinade: Combine 1/2 cup soy sauce, 2 tablespoons sherry, 4 teaspoons sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt (which I omit because of the soy sauce), 3 cloves minced garlic and a crushed 1-inch piece of fresh ginger root.

For the pork: 3 pounds lean pork butt, cut in 1-inch cubes and about 1 cup of water.. Place pork in pan with cold water. Cover and bring to boil and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain. Pour marinade over cooled pork. Marinate 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain off. Dredge pork in 6 tablespoons of cornstarch.

Heat oil in large frying pan until very hot (390F). Fry pork a few cubes at a time until crisp and brown. (This happens very quickly.) Remove and drain on paper towels. Keep warm.

Pour off all but 3 or 4 tablespoons of the oil from pan. Reheat until very hot.

Toss in onion, celery carrots and ginger. Stir fry vigorously one minute. Add pepper and fry one minute more being careful not to overcook.

Return pork to pan and pour in warm sweet and sour sauce. Stir until thoroughly hot. Serve at once.

**Cooks Notes ~ Tonight this seemed particularly salty to me, so I would use a low sodium soy sauce. I used a dry sherry and I thought the flavor it imparted was too strong, so I think a sweet sherry might be a better.

I had read somewhere that in order to be considered a good cook, you only needed to know how to make a dozen really good recipes. This is one of mine. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Chop Suey

I never had the good fortune to meet Sweetie-Pi's mother. When speaking of her, everyone I've ever met who knew her, gets that far away look, reminisces with a far away smile and begins describing her, "She was the grandest lady...."

When was the last time you heard a woman described as a lady? It's an old fashioned word with deep connotations. Sweetie-Pi's friends go on to describe her as elegant, fun, beautiful, gracious, loving, welcoming. But they always start out saying, "She was the grandest lady.... "

This recipe was prepared by Sweetie-Pi's mother decades ago. I'm fortunate enough to have her recipe card, written in her own small, well-formed printing. The recipe, like her, is something to remember. It's my pleasure to share it with you as she wrote it.

Chop Suey

1 cup leftover pork, beef, or chicken
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup (or more) onion, cut fine
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons shortening
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 cup water
1 can bean sprouts
salt, pepper, flour

Heat shortening and fry meat, celery and onions for 5 minutes. Then add sugar, soy sauce, and water. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Add bean sprouts, season with salt and pepper. Thicken with flour and cook 10 to 15 minutes.

Now let me add my own remarks. I've only made this with chicken. I think two tablespoons of soy sauce is not enough; I probably give the soy sauce at least a couple more hearty shakes. (Sweetie-Pi adds more at the table but he has those salt-craving taste buds.)

I make a slurry of the flour and water to remove any disagreeable lumps. If the sauce is too thick, either add a couple more shakes of soy sauce or a splash more water. Conversely, if it looks too thin, make another small batch of slurry, (a couple teaspoons of water to a quarter cup of water). Add carefully, stirring well in between, giving the flour an opportunity to do its job.

We also add a small can of drained water chestnuts. I don't like them and pick them out, but Sweetie-Pi loves them. And lastly, I do not cook for 10-15 minutes at the end. I like my vegetables tender crisp, so once the sauce has thickened, I might let it go another minute or two, but I consider it done.

I served this with rice, but it's also very good with chow mein noodles. Rice is better for you, but the chow mein noodles are fun!