Some camp dinners earn their place by being impressive. This one earns it by being faster than the alternative. Fifteen minutes, one pan, one pot of rice, and you have a sticky, glossy beef stir-fry that tastes like you made an effort.
Mongolian beef is a takeaway staple for good reason — the sauce is sweet, savoury and clingy, and it makes an affordable cut of beef taste far more expensive than it was. It also happens to suit a two-burner camp stove almost perfectly, because everything cooks hot and fast and there is nothing to simmer or babysit.
What you need
Ingredients
Serves 4.
- 600 g beef stir-fry strips (or rump steak, sliced thinly across the grain)
- 2 tbsp cornflour
- 2 tbsp vegetable or peanut oil
- 1 large brown onion, cut into wedges
- 1 red capsicum, sliced into strips
- 1 green capsicum, sliced into strips
- 150 g snow peas, trimmed
- 4 spring onions, cut into 4 cm lengths
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 2 cups jasmine rice
For the sauce: 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup water, 2 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp hoisin sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp cornflour.
To serve: lime wedges and sesame seeds.
Gear
- Two-burner camp gas stove
- Wok or large heavy-based frying pan
- Saucepan with a lid for the rice
- Small screw-top jar for the sauce
- Chopping board and knife
- Tongs or a spatula
How to make it
- Mix the sauce before you light anything. Combine the soy sauce, water, honey, hoisin, sesame oil and cornflour in a jar and shake it hard until there are no lumps. Doing this now means you are not measuring while the pan is screaming.
- Start the rice. Rinse the jasmine rice until the water runs mostly clear, then cook it on the second burner with 3 cups of water and a good pinch of salt. Lid on, lowest flame, 12 minutes, then slide it off the heat and leave it covered.
- Coat the beef. Toss the beef strips with the cornflour and a pinch of salt. The cornflour is what thickens the sauce onto the meat and gives it that glossy finish, so do not skip it.
- Get the pan properly hot. Heat the wok over the highest flame for 2-3 minutes. Add half the oil and wait until it shimmers, then add half the beef in a single layer. Leave it alone for 60-90 seconds before you touch it, so it sears rather than stews.
- Sear in two batches. Cook the first batch for about 2 minutes until browned but still pink in the middle, then lift it onto a plate. Repeat with the remaining oil and beef. Crowding the pan is what turns camp stir-fry grey and watery.
- Char the vegetables. Add the onion and both capsicums to the hot pan and cook for 2-3 minutes, tossing, until the edges soften and pick up dark char marks. Then add the garlic and ginger and stir for 30 seconds — any longer and they burn.
- Bring the beef back. Return the beef and any resting juices to the pan, pour in the sauce, and toss constantly for 1-2 minutes. The sauce will bubble and thicken quickly. When it coats the back of a spoon and clings to the meat, it is ready.
- Add the snow peas and spring onion last. Toss them through for about 1 minute only. They should stay bright green and squeaky — that crunch is the whole point.
- Serve over the rice. Spoon it over the jasmine rice, squeeze over a lime wedge and scatter with sesame seeds. Eat it immediately, straight out of the bowl.
Camp tips
- Prep the beef at home. Slice and cornflour the beef before you leave, then seal it in a flat container. It keeps two days in the Engel or the van fridge and saves the fiddliest job at camp.
- Freeze it for longer trips. Portioned beef strips freeze well and double as ice bricks on day one, then thaw in the fridge by the time you want them.
- No snow peas? Use frozen. A handful of frozen peas or a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables works fine and travels better than fresh in hot weather.
- Watch the honey. Honey catches and burns faster than sugar. Keep the sauce off the heat until the last two minutes, and pull the pan off the flame if it starts to darken too quickly.
- Leftovers make a jaffle. Cold Mongolian beef and rice pressed into a jaffle iron the next morning is one of the better breakfasts in camp.
This is the sort of dinner that quietly becomes a fixture on your trip menu, because it is quick enough for a late arrival and good enough to cook on a night when you are not rushing at all. One pan, one pot, fifteen minutes of actual work, and a bowl that tastes like a Friday night takeaway.
Keeping the beef, the sauce and the vegetables cold and organised is half the battle, and a bit of 12V capacity goes a long way — have a look at our 12V accessories for the fridges, power and lighting that keep a camp kitchen running properly.
Cooked it? Tell us how yours went in the comments.
