Mongolian Tomato Beef (Venison)

Serve this slightly spicy dish over white rice, whole grain brown rice or wide rice noodles to catch all of the yummy garlic and ginger sauce.

If you are like me and are trying to decrease the amount of refined grains in your diet, then you might prefer to serve it with brown rice.  Since brown rice is filled with oils, it can quickly turn rancid when stored at room temperature.  To keep this from happening and to prevent it from losing its healing compounds, store it in an airtight container in the fridge.  Storing it in this method will allow it to stay fresh for up to a year.

When cooking brown rice, I use the typical 2:1 water to rice ratio.  (For example 2 cups of water and 1 cup of rice.)  Just bring water to a boil, turn down to low, add rice, cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes.  I haven't figured out the reason yet, but it seems like my brown rice takes less time to cook now that I moved.  Maybe its the gas range instead of the electric?

Many of the important nutrients in the rice will leach into the water during cooking.  To make sure you actually get these nutrients into your body instead of pouring them down the drain, let the rice cook until all of the water is absorbed.

We don't actually have any beef in our house.  We have practically everything else though: lamb, deer, antelope, elk, and we just ran out of moose.  Of course you can use regular beef and this recipe is great, but if you too have a husband that is a hunter or hunt yourself, this is a great recipe for deer or another game meat. 

Mongolian Tomato Beef (or Venison) Recipe

Perfect recipe for beef, deer, elk, antelope, moose or other big game meat

Ingredients: 

SAUCE
6 T low-sodium soy sauce
3 t sugar
3 t cornstarch
6 t dry sherry
6 t hoisin sauce
3 t rice vinegar
3 t chile paste with garlic

1 T olive oil
1 T ginger, peeled and minced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 bell pepper thinly sliced (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 onion, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
1/2 c zucchini, cut into bite size pieces
1 c sugar snap peas
1 1/2 c wedged tomatoes (about 2)

1 pound sirloin steak (I used deer)

1/4 c peanuts (I used roasted unsalted)
1/4 green onions, sliced

Directions: 
1. Whisk soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, dry sherry, hoisin sauce, vinegar, and chile paste until smooth.  Set aside.

2. Sear steak either in a pan or on a grill and set aside.

2. Heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add ginger and garlic.  Cook for about a minute or until fragrant.

3. Add bell pepper, onion, zucchini, tomatoes, and peas to pan and saute until brown and slightly tender. 

4. Thinly slice meat against the grain.  Add to pan and cook to desired doneness.  I cooked my meat medium rare because it is deer, but with beef you might want to cook a bit more.

5. Add soy sauce mixture and cook for 1 minute or until thickened, stirring constantly.

6. Stir in green onions and peanuts.

7. Serve over rice or noodles.

It doesn't look like brown rice in the picture, but it is....