Mongolian Tartar-Style Steaks

At the internationally-influenced picnic I recently served, I veered from my tendency to cook foods from my favorite cuisines - Jewish and Italian.  I cooked some tremendously flavorful steaks that were so easy to make that they hardly warrant a recipe.

Marc Cramer's Imperial Mongolian Cooking: Recipes from the Kingdoms of Genghis Khan is one of the more unusual and interesting cookbooks I have in my collection.  I bought it at the late, great, and much missed The Savvy Traveller bookstore that used to reside across Michigan Avenue from The Art Institute of Chicago.

When Jeremy was younger and our family would take weekend trips to Chicago, it was simply understood that I would visit the bookstore.  And I would spend a long time there.  And if anyone wanted to meander off to grab a snack when they got bored while I perused, they were welcome to leave and then come back ... everyone knew where to find me.  I'd be looking through books about year-round trips around the world, books about volunteering in exotic locales, books about quaint towns in foreign countries, and cookbooks devoted to ethnic cuisines.

But, as you can well imagine in a day and age that can't even support the behemoth that Borders once was, a little bookstore devoted to all aspects of travel and foreign locales couldn't possibly survive.  It closed in 2007.

Thus, not only did I take a culinary trip to Mongolia in preparing the recipe I'm going to share with you, but I also travelled back to Chicago, back to my favorite bookstore, and back to the many dreams and vicarious adventures that were fostered there.

Mongolian cooking is not just about choosing proteins, vegetables, and sauces, then stir frying it all together - a la Mongolian Barbecue - on a searingly hot surface.  The Mongol Empire once stretched across land now known as Poland and Hungary, across Armenia and Iraq, as far south as Vietnam and as far north as Russia.  Therefore, it incorporates a wide variety of influences and ingredients.

But typically, Mongol cooking is very meat-oriented; vegetables did not grow readily in the cold center of the territory, so only hardy varieties (potatoes, onions) would have been available.  Yak was popular, but beef and lamb make excellent substitutes.  Dairy products, as well, are essential to the diet, and yak milk is the base for cheeses and beverages.

These steaks, then, which are grilled and then accented with Asian flavors and scallions, are very representative of Mongol cooking.  They take just a few minutes to cook and a minimum of ingredients, but they offer a maximum of flavor.

Mongolian Tartar-Style Steaks (Tatar Uhriin Mah)
(slightly adapted from Marc Cramer's Imperial Mongolian Cooking: Recipes from the Kingdoms of Genghis Khan)

1 pound, total weight, thin-cut round steaks
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 green onions, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
1/2 teaspoon brown mustard
1 teaspoon sesame oil
pinch of red pepper flakes

Preheat outdoor grill to medium.  Lay the steaks onto a platter and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Grill 3 minutes per side, or to desired doneness.

While steaks are cooking, combine remaining ingredients.  Remove steaks to a serving dish and drizzle sauce over them.

Serves 4-6.

Scallion Pancakes for the Year of the Dragon

Today is the Chinese New Year, so I'm serving something special in honor of the holiday.  According to Wikipedia, celebrations involve buying "presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of 'good fortune' or 'happiness', 'wealth', and "longevity'."

Because this is the Year of the Dragon I'd entertained an odd notion of making something with dragon fruit, which I adore.  I don't care so much for its flavor, which is fairly bland (in my limited experience, anyway, of trying it once), but I love its gorgeous colors.  It's also filled with tiny seeds - reminiscent of poppy seeds - which would offer perfect symbolism to hope for many blessings in the upcoming year.

I'd thought about pureeing the fruit and perhaps making a sweet filling for dessert egg rolls.  But since I couldn't find any fresh, frozen, or canned fruits despite searching through grocery stores and ethnic markets near my home and asking my very helpful friends at The Produce Station if perchance they had any, I had to make a new plan.  (This photo was taken at a market in Pittsburgh in October ... a bit premature.)

I didn't want to resort to boring ol' fried rice - it's a great way to use up leftovers, but it's hardly celebratory or festive.  I wasn't feeling adventurous enough to make steamed buns.  I found numerous variations on red bean paste that I could have played with; but that wasn't particularly striking my fancy, although I do like red bean ice cream.

And then it hit me: Scallion Pancakes.  I could devour entire batches of these, crispy, chewy and delicious as they are.  They're easy to make, and can be eaten on their own or with a dipping sauce or wrapped around a filling ... they're perfect!  They require no unusual ingredients or equipment, so anyone can make them.  And with their many flecks of onion, I could also say that they offer symbolic hopes for bounty.

I asked my BFF Wendy's daughter Alison, who is studying Chinese (and who is fluent in English, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese as well) how to say "Happy New Year" appropriately for this post.  She gave me the common greeting in Mandarin, the most widely spoken dialect:

新年快乐

The four characters are xin ([SHIN] = New), nian ([nee-EN] = Year), and kuai le (pronounced to rhyme with "why the" = Happy/Wonderful).

May the Year of the Dragon bring you much happiness and good fortune!



Scallion Pancakes with Garlic-Ginger Dipping Sauce

Garlic-Ginger Dipping Sauce:
1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
1 teaspoon minced candied ginger
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

Combine all ingredients and let rest at room temperature while making the pancakes.


Scallion Pancakes:
1 cup cake flour
1 cup bread flour + extra for dusting
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1-1/2 cups boiling water
4 tablespoons sesame oil
2 bunches scallions, chopped fine
4 tablespoons light-flavored oil, for frying

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours and the salt.  Slowly pour the boiling water over the flour mixture, stirring until it forms a ball.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 4 portions, and keep the remaining ones covered while you work with one at a time.

Form the dough into a ball, then roll it out on a heavily floured surface to an 8" circle.  (A fair amount of flour is required to keep the soft dough from sticking to everything.)  Brush with sesame oil, then roll it up into a cylinder.

Twist the dough into a spiral, then roll out again into an 8" circle.

Brush with sesame oil and sprinkle with one-quarter of the scallions.

Roll it up into a cylinder again.

Twist the dough into a spiral, then roll out again into an 8" circle.  Repeat this procedure with the remaining dough to make a total of 4 pancakes.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the frying oil in a large skillet, over medium-high heat.  Cook one pancake at a time for 2-3 minutes per side, until it's crisp and golden brown.  Repeat with remaining oil and pancakes.

Makes 4 pancakes.