MENU DESCRIPTION: “Quickly cooked steak with scallions and garlic.”
Beef lovers go crazy over this one at the restaurant. Flank steak is cut into bite-size chunks against the grain, then it’s lightly dusted with potato starch (in our case we’ll use cornstarch), flash-fried in oil, and doused with an amazing sweet soy garlic sauce. The beef comes out tender as can be, and the simple sauce sings to your taste buds. I designed this recipe to use a wok, but if you don’t have one a skillet will suffice (you may need to add more oil to the pan to cover the beef in the flash-frying step). P. F. Chang’s secret sauce is what makes this dish so good, and it’s versatile. If you don’t dig beef, you can substitute with chicken. Or you can even brush it on grilled salmon.
Serves: 2
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- ½ cup soy sauce
- ½ cup water
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 pound flank steak
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 2 large green onions
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Make the sauce by heating 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium/low heat. Add ginger and garlic, and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches. Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise the heat to medium and boil the sauce for 2 to 3 minutes or until it thickens. Remove from heat.
- Slice the flank steak against the grain into ¼-inch thick bite-size 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.
- Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef. Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks
- Heat up one cup of oil in a wok (or skillet) over medium heat until it’s hot, but not smoking. Add the beef and sauté for just two minutes, or until the beef just begins to darken on the edges. Stir the meat around a little so that it cooks evenly. After a couple of 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, dump the meat back into it, and simmer for one minute. Add the sauce, cook for one minute while stirring, then add all 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.
