It's been quite a while since my family and I had our Mongolian Barbecue fix. We usually had a yearly "date" with Kublai Khan's in Cebu but we skipped last year so you can say we're running on empty now. There's just something about the delicious aroma of wok-frying ingredients that really get to us. Of course, coupled with the Kublai Khan's saying "Don't blame cook, he only put in fire", every bowl of Mongolian barbecue is a feast in itself.
After surveying that I had enough ingredients to make our own Mongolian feast at home, I began chopping away. There's no exact science to this kind of food. You prepare whatever it is you want in your bowl. Here are the 5 main groups of ingredients to a successful Kublai Khan meal:
AROMATICS - includes garlic, onion, ginger, Mandarin sausage, shallots/green onions, lemongrass
VEGETABLES - carrots, baguio beans, red and green bell peppers, sayote, bean sprouts, chinese cabbage, cabbage, young corn, bean curd, black fungus, mushroom
CARBO - rice, miki noodles, vermicelli noodles, bihon noodles
MEAT & SEAFOOD - chicken, pork, beef, squid ball, fish ball, quekiam, squid, liver, gizzard
SAUCES & CONDIMENTS - terriyaki, oyster, barbecue, szechuan, soy, coco cream, fish sauce, sesame oil, calamansi/lemon juice, sugar, sesame seeds, peanuts
It is really a "make your own" meal...you choose your veggies, carbo, meats and sauces...saute all of them in a piping hot wok and serve in a bowl. For the homemade version, it was more practical to make a large batch for the family instead of letting each one do their choosing and individual wok frying. I discovered that the secret to good Mongolian barbecue is the right size of the ingredients...small bite-size pieces of meat and veggies that are thinly sliced make for a yummy Khan feast.
So, how did our family version of Mongolian barbecue go? Even my 10-month old baby was drooling over the bowl we prepared for her...it was that good!
Wow! It wasn't to much work?
ReplyDeleteHi Lyra! Bulk of the work was really in prepping the ingredients. As soon as you have everything ready, cooking is a breeze! First to bathe in the wok are my tokwa pieces...fried until golden brown then set aside. Next would be the veggies until half-cooked then set aside again. The third to go to the wok would be the meats, starting with the mandarin chorizo for flavor, then the aromatics...then the meats. I pour in my sauce mix/selection and slowly add in the rice, noodles and veggies (in batches). I adjust the sauce as I see fit then finish off with the mushrooms and tokwa. Sprinkle with green onions on top and voila! Mongolian BBQ heaven!!!
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