Hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’ll be diving back into our series dedicated to Chinese American hack recipes with a shot at the PF Chang’s “pepper steak,” but before we do that though, today we’re also celebrating our 100th recipe! Yes, that’s right, y’all. We have officially made 100 of these videos and somehow all of you are still here watching them, which is wild and humbling and just such an honor to get to make food for you all every week. So, before we do anything else, I just want to say thank you all from the bottom of my heart for watching and sharing the recipe videos, short videos, music, livestreams, thank you everyone that has come to the pop-up, all of it. just, thank you. I don’t how how this happened or how we got here, but. here we are though.
Anyway, back to our recipe. Today we’re gonna be taking a shot at reproducing the PF Chang’s “Pepper Steak,” which is more or less a Mongolian beef with a few extra veggies added, and a significant amount of black pepper used as a garnish. This means that, for our version today, I’m going to be borrowing a number of elements from our Mongolian beef recipe including the corn starch coating and sear to our steak, as well as the dark soy sauce sauce base, too. In addition, I’m also going to include a few small changes (slash…improvements?)…let’s just say, we’re gonna add a few steps that I wish I had taken in that original recipe which would have elevated the final dish quite a bit. Mainly, that’s gonna be the inclusion of a bit of baking powder (or baking soda) to help tenderize our flank steak, as well as a few heat elements which will really open up the sweetness of our dark soy sauce nicely. Then we’re gonna combine this all with the crispy piece of flank steak that I think we perfected in the original Mongolian beef recipe for a wonderfully rich, crispy, peppery, and tender beef stir fry. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
1lb flank steak
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 medium white onion
1/2 cup corn starch
peanut oil
black pepper
INGREDIENTS (marinade)
1/2 tsp baking soda + water
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp shaoxing wine
1/2 tsp black pepper
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp black vinegar
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp doubanjiang
2 tbsp chile crisp oil
PREP
CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside
FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside
DICE the bell peppers, set aside
DICE the onion, set aside
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
SLICE the flank steak into 1 inch pieces against the grain
DISSOLVE 1/2 tsp baking soda in 1/4 cup water, then combine with the flank steak and let marinate for 15 minutes
REMOVE excess baking soda, then combine steak with all remaining marinade ingredients and let marinate for 30 minutes
COAT the steak in corn starch, set aside
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a wok as hot as possible, then add 1/4 cup peanut oil and long yao
ADD the steak to the wok with as much contact with the wok surface as possible, then sear for 2 1/2 minutes before flipping and searing for an additional 1 minute
REMOVE the steak, then deglaze the remaining fond in the wok with the sauce mixture plus 1/4 cup water
COMBINE for 1 minute then remove from heat, clean out the wok, reheat, add another 1/4 cup peanut oil and long yao
ADD the garlic and ginger, then toss for 15 seconds until fragrant
ADD the bell peppers and toss for 2 minutes
ADD the onions and toss for 1 minute
ADD the steak and sauce mixture back to the wok and toss to combine
ADD the corn starch slurry until the sauce reaches desired thickness
REMOVE from heat and finish with black pepper