Indulge in culinary delight with Chef John's Mongolian Meatloaf. This video guides you through creating a savory masterpiece, combining traditional meatloaf with the bold flavors of Mongolian cuisine. With expert tips and step-by-step instructions, you'll craft a mouthwatering dish that's sure to impress. Elevate your meatloaf game and enjoy a delectable fusion of flavors in every bite, brought to you by the culinary expertise of Chef John.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Mongolian Meatloaf.
00:08 That's right, I couldn't decide whether to make Mongolian beef or make a meatloaf.
00:13 So I decided to try both things at once.
00:16 And I could not have been more pleased with how this experiment turned out.
00:20 And no, for the record, none of this is even remotely Mongolian.
00:24 And we'll get into that later.
00:26 But for now, let's go ahead and get started by sautéing some onions in some vegetable
00:30 oil, along with a big pinch of salt, in a pan set over medium-high heat.
00:35 And we will cook those stirring for a few minutes, or until the onions start to soften
00:39 up and turn translucent, and maybe start to take on a little bit of golden brown color.
00:44 And once we feel like that's happened, and our onions are looking a little something
00:47 like this, we will stop and add some crushed or finely minced garlic, along with some finely
00:53 grated ginger.
00:54 And we'll go ahead and stir that in, and then cook this for just about a minute, just
00:58 to take the raw edge off those two aromatics.
01:02 And believe it or not, that's it.
01:04 Once that's cooked for about a minute, we will turn off the heat, at which point we
01:08 need to let this cool down to room temp, before we add it to the next ingredients.
01:12 And that would be a couple pounds of ground beef, which ideally is 85% lean, 15% fat,
01:19 but if you have to, I think 90/10 will also work.
01:23 But either way, we'll go ahead and add our onion mixture, followed by our starchy filler,
01:27 which for most meatloaves is going to be breadcrumbs.
01:30 But since this is inspired by Mongolian beef, I'm going to go with a cup of cooked rice,
01:35 which I've always thought was an excellent, and very underrated substitute for breadcrumbs
01:38 in meatloaf.
01:40 And then after the rice, we'll also want to add one beaten egg.
01:44 And then we will follow that with some freshly sliced green onions, which unlike the harsher,
01:48 harder, yellow onions we diced up, do not need to be cooked first before adding to this
01:52 mixture.
01:54 So we'll toss those in, before we season this up with a little bit of soy sauce, plus some
01:59 kosher salt.
02:01 And because our sauce is going to be fairly salty, we are going to use a relatively light
02:04 hand here.
02:06 And that's it, we'll finish up with some freshly ground black pepper.
02:10 And then we'll go ahead and mix this all together, which I like to use a fork for, which might
02:14 take a few extra minutes, but I feel it's a nice way to combine this, without having
02:18 to worry too much about overmixing, which can make a meatloaf a little bit tough and
02:22 rubbery.
02:23 Although having said that, that's not going to be so much of a problem for this recipe,
02:28 since again, it's inspired by Mongolian beef, which is done with strips of beef, which definitely
02:33 has a little bit of texture and chew to it.
02:36 So for this, a meatloaf that's actually a little bit firmer, and not super tender and
02:39 crumbly is probably a better choice.
02:42 But anyway, the main point here is mix this until everything is evenly combined, at which
02:46 point we'll take this and transfer it into a lightly oiled loaf pan.
02:51 And then to ensure a nice uniform shape once this is baked, we will want to make sure we're
02:55 pressing that meat down firmly into the corners, so that we don't leave any pockets of air.
03:00 And then once everything's been thoughtfully pressed in, we'll go ahead and smooth out
03:04 the top, at which point this is ready to transfer into the center of a 350 degree oven for about
03:10 an hour, or until we have an internal temp of about 145 to 150, at which point our meatloaf
03:17 should look like this.
03:19 And no, that is not the most beautiful thing that's ever come out of our oven, but don't
03:23 worry, the final presentation is going to be stunning.
03:26 And if we wanted, we could just slice and serve this meatloaf hot, topped with the Mongolian
03:30 beef sauce we're just about to make.
03:33 But I prefer to serve this what I call "diner style," which means we cook it ahead, chill
03:38 it, and then slice and brown a piece when we're ready to serve.
03:42 So once that had cooled down, I wrapped it up and popped it in the fridge.
03:46 But whether you're going to serve yours hot right away, or do it what I call "diner style,"
03:51 we still need to make our Mongolian beef sauce, which is going to start with a little bit
03:55 of oil in a cold pan, into which we will add some grated ginger, as well as some finely
04:00 minced or crushed garlic.
04:02 And then we'll turn our heat on to medium high, and we will wait until we see and hear
04:05 that stuff start to sizzle, at which point we'll give it a little bit of a stir fry for
04:09 about 30 seconds, although it's really more of a smash and smear fry.
04:14 But anyway, we'll give that a quick sizzle before we add in the rest of the ingredients,
04:19 which includes a little touch of brown sugar, plus the other main ingredient, some soy sauce.
04:25 And even though I didn't, it's probably not a bad idea to use low-sodium soy sauce, since
04:29 we can always adjust with salt later, and that's a safer bet.
04:33 But either way, we'll finish this up with some chili flakes, as well as a little touch
04:37 of ketchup, which is my secret ingredient.
04:40 And then last but not least, a splash of cold fresh water.
04:44 And what we'll do is give that a whisk, and wait for it to start to simmer, at which point
04:48 our sauce is basically done.
04:50 Okay, we don't want to continue cooking and reducing this, because it will get way too
04:54 intense and salty.
04:56 So once this does start to bubble, we can go ahead and turn our heat down to low, since
05:00 as I just said, our sauce is basically done, except at this point, the texture is a little
05:05 too thin.
05:07 Which is why our final step will be to thicken this up with a cornstarch slurry, which is
05:12 nothing more than a teaspoon of cornstarch that we dissolve in a couple teaspoons of
05:16 water.
05:17 Oh, and if you can, try to get all the cornstarch in the cup.
05:21 But anyway, we'll stir that together, and then pour it into our sauce.
05:25 And we can just use that same spoon we stirred it with to mix that in.
05:30 But then we should probably switch to a whisk, and we'll raise our temperature up to medium
05:34 high.
05:35 And as soon as this mixture just starts to simmer again, you will notice the sauce start
05:40 to thicken up and get shiny.
05:42 And if everything goes according to plan, we should end up with something that looks
05:45 like this.
05:46 Okay, we don't want something super thick, right?
05:49 We're not trying to make Mongolian beef pudding, which is what you will get if you add too
05:53 much cornstarch.
05:54 Okay, we just want something that beautifully coats our meat.
05:58 And to me, this was looking just about perfect.
06:01 And that's it.
06:02 We'll simply keep that warm until we're ready to serve.
06:05 And yes, you can make this ahead and warm it up.
06:08 Speaking of which, let's go ahead and take out our cold meatloaf, and we will remove
06:12 that from the pan.
06:13 Oh, and if it's sticking, that's because of the cold fat.
06:17 Just warm up the bottom a little bit, and it will slide right out.
06:20 And then what we'll do is cut this in half so we can see the inside.
06:24 And no, the inside does not look much better than the outside.
06:27 But that's okay, since what we're going to do after slicing off a portion is heat this
06:32 up by browning it in a pan.
06:35 And for this test slice, I decided to dust the surface with cornstarch before browning,
06:40 since as you may know, when we do Mongolian beef, the strips of steak are dusted in cornstarch
06:45 first, before they're pan fried to give them nice crusty edges.
06:49 So I thought that would be appropriate to try here.
06:52 But anyway, once dusted, I heated up some oil in a nonstick pan, set over medium-high
06:57 heat, and I placed my slice of what will hopefully soon be Mongolian meatloaf in.
07:02 And as soon as the surface is browned to our liking, and of course our meatloaf is heated
07:06 through, we'll be ready to serve this up and top it with our sauce.
07:11 And while we could definitely reheat this meatloaf without the cornstarch, it probably
07:14 does help produce a nicer crust.
07:17 Which reminds me, when you turn that over, please let the other side get just as browned
07:21 and crusty.
07:22 Which I didn't, because I was in a hurry, and starving, and I really wanted to try this
07:27 with the sauce, to see if this experiment was even gonna work.
07:30 But anyway, I plated that up, drooling with anticipation as I did.
07:35 And then I went ahead and spooned over that gorgeous Mongolian beef sauce, which believe
07:40 it or not was adapted from a copycat PF Chang recipe that I came across about 10 years ago.
07:46 So I spooned that over, before finishing up with a few toasted sesame seeds.
07:51 And then I grabbed a fork and went in for a taste.
07:54 And that my friends, was exactly how I hoped it was gonna be.
07:57 Okay, instead of a thin strip of pan fried beef, this amazingly flavorful sauce was coating
08:03 a nice tender beefy piece of meatloaf.
08:06 And it only took me a couple bites to realize, that for a change, I had actually accomplished
08:11 what I had set out to do.
08:13 Which was a meatloaf that actually tasted like Mongolian beef.
08:16 Oh, and this would be a great time to mention, that not only does this have nothing to do
08:21 with Mongolian cuisine, neither does Mongolian beef.
08:25 Alright apparently that's a dish popularized in American Chinese restaurants by way of
08:29 Taiwan.
08:31 So I did want to mention that, in case any of our Mongolian friends are watching, since
08:35 they're probably a little bit confused why I keep calling this Mongolian.
08:40 But anyway, I was beyond thrilled with this test piece.
08:43 So after I finished that, I browned up another slice, and served it properly this time on
08:48 some bok choy rice, which is simply steamed rice with a whole bunch of bok choy in it.
08:54 And after topping that with plenty of our sauce, I again finished up with some toasted
08:57 sesame seeds, for some dramatic visual contrast.
09:02 As well as a few shakes of chili flakes, for a little bit of heat and a touch of color.
09:06 Oh, and if you wanted to top this with other things, like sliced green onions, or a fresh
09:11 herb like cilantro, go ahead.
09:14 I mean you are after all the Genghis Khan, of what else should go on.
09:18 But what you see here is my official plating recommendation.
09:21 And as incredible as this was eaten by itself, it was even more extraordinary on top of the
09:26 rice, eaten along with those slightly bitter greens.
09:29 Since as you may know, a little bit of bitterness in a dish really does amplify all the other
09:34 flavors, and also provides a perfect contrast and a perfect balance to that sweet saltiness
09:40 of the sauce.
09:42 And even though our beef was in meatloaf form, if you like classic Mongolian beef, I think
09:47 you're going to absolutely love this.
09:49 And by the way, the most common complaint about Mongolian beef, is usually that the
09:54 meat is too tough, and/or pan frying all those little strips of meat was too messy and time
09:58 consuming.
09:59 Well, here we've eliminated both those issues.
10:03 So if those are some problems you've had, and don't want to deal with, or you're just
10:06 interested in something extraordinarily delicious to eat, then I really do hope you give this
10:11 a try soon.
10:14 So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
10:18 more info as usual.
10:20 And as always, enjoy!
10:24 [music]
10:28 [music fades]
10:33 [music fades]
10:35 [music fades]
10:37 [music fades]
10:39 [music fades]
10:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]