Mongolian BBQ cooking, restaurant style at home? (Warning: Long post :) )

[ElmoTheDestroyer]

I'm sure some of you are familliar with "Mongolian BBQ" style cooking in some restaurants... (The places that you pick your own veggies/meat/sauce/ingredients and bring your plate to a chef, where they quickly fry it up on a large round frying pan of some sort) ...

Anyway, if you know what I'm talking about at this point, I have a few questions for ya..

When they run low on meat, I see them bring a few handfuls of frozen "meat chips" out. They are slices of meat roughly the same size as potato chips, only slightly thicker. How do you get meat like this? I'm assuming a butcher would have to cut meat thin (obviously), but how do you keep it all in seperate frozen chips, instead of one huge lump of frozen meat?

I would love to know where I can buy meat pre-cut/frozen like this. I mentioned this to the butcher at the grocery store and he said he could slice meat thin like that, lay it all out on a large sheet, and freeze it so they would all be individual. However, I'm not sure if this would provide the same result as the "flash frozen" stuff the restaurants use.

Also, what specific cut of meat is it? The guy I talked to thought it might be a rump roast thats sliced up, but he wasn't sure. The chicken is easy, but the beef and pork I'm clueless as to what they use.

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Next questions are about the sauces... What do they use? The restaurant I goto uses very vague labels... Nothing I could goto an asian grocery store to look for. As far as I can tell, they had some hot pepper oil, sesame oil, wine, a sauce labeled "garlic", one labeled "house", and I can't remember the last one... All the non-oil sauces, were thin and dark.. reminded me of soy sauce.

Any ideas what these might be? The dark sauces, whatever they are seem to really be my favorite part. Any suggestions/ideas as to what they might be would be appreciated.

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Last set of questions is about the actual food preperation...

Is there any reason I can't do the same cooking style in an electric wok (good one, 450degree temp)? Or does that big platter they use get hotter or something?

They always use a significant amount of water when their stiring/pushing the food around.. I'm assuming this produces a hot steam which helps the food cook. Any specific tips as to how much, or when, or when not to add water?

It looks like an easy way to cook, but I'm sure there are a few easy to miss details that make it all click.

Any tips/advice you could share will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
--ElmoTheDestroyer

 

[buckytom]

elmo, (btw, great username)
i've seen the frozen thin sliced cuts of meat in a korean supermarket before. it appears it is cut from an already frozen piece of meat, usually the more flavorful and cheaper cuts like chuck, rump, or round. because it is already frozen, it will stay seperate so long as it never thaws. still, the larger slices are usually seperated by a piece of wax paper, kinda like steak-ums. (i know, bad reference, but you get the idea)

i'm not sure about the sauces, but i'm guessing possibly mirin, teryaki, hoisin, hot chili oil and bean paste, or even ponzu/soy sauce would be the darker ones.

 

[GB]

If you are doing this at home then the way to get them frozen as separate pieces is to freeze them of a cookie sheet. Once they are frozen then you can stick them all in a bag and they will not stick together. This holds true for freezing most things.

 

[ElmoTheDestroyer]

buckytom - Thanks ... I love this username... Makes an interesting mental image .. Thanks for the sauce info, not sure what some of them are, time for google!

Curious... What would the difference be between those cuts? Chuck, rump, round... When sliced thing and used in stirfry, would they all have similiar texture? The biggest thing I'm trying to avoid, is having chewy beef. The Mongolian BBQ uses been that seems to almost have the same consistancy as the chicken (very soft, easy to bite through, but good )

GB - Unfortunately, I dont think I'm going to do this at home... I have absolutely 0 room in my freezer for something as large as a cookiesheet. Good idea though, something to remember when I get a bigger/better kitchen ... Any idea if freezing it myself, vs having it frozen in the butchers ultra-cold freezer will make a difference? If so, what will the difference be? Less shelf life, more flavor, etc...?

Thanks again! Can't wait till I'm able to make this at home.

--ElmoTheDestroyer

 

[Raine]

Remember, restaurants order their items from food brokers who offer food items not readily available to the rest of us.

 

[Raine]

Maybe this will help ya on the sauces.

http://www.bdsmongolianbarbeque.com/menu.html

 

[htc]

Elmo, most Asian stores have it presliced like this. If you can't find a good Asian store close to you. Partially freeze your meat and cut it using your food processor slicing blade. I've done this and it works really well.

 

[ElmoTheDestroyer]

Thanks for the information! Hopefully I'll have the money to go grocery shopping soon, when I do I'll look around at asian grocerys and see what I can come up with.

Hmm... Wonder if BD's would sell bottles of their sauces...? Doubt it, but I think I gotta make some phone calls Monday. (worth a shot )

Thanks again!

 

[buckytom]

elmo-t-d, here's some info on cuts of beef: http://www.procutlery.com/CutsChart.htm

the descriptions don't take into consideration that the meat you will be using will be sliced very thin, across the grain, so it won't be tough.

 

[cara]

bucky, that link is great!!
We just purchased half a beef and even if we were told what everything is, we forgot until home... and now we can have a look and see if we recognize something ;o))

 

[ElmoTheDestroyer]

Yeh, thats a great link Bucky! Been lookin' for something like that for a while... I get so confused when people start talking about different cuts of meat since I usually don't have much of a clue what their talking about

Thanks again!
--ElmoTheDestroyer