Slice and thin out the lamb by pounding with a meat mallet on both sides. Slice the lamb into approx 10mm x 40mm pieces

Dissolve 2 tbs of bicard soda in 500ml of water. Soak the lamb for 20 minutes and then rinse thoroughly.

Marinate for at least 30 minutes in the soy sauce, rice wine, cornflour, sugar, umami and salt

Slice the onion, chop the chilli and julienne the wombok stem

Drain the marinated lamb of excess moisture. Toss in cracked black pepper.

To a hot dry wok add the lamb and fry 1 minute. The idea is to char the meat a little

Add 2 Tbs of peanut oil and then the vegetables. Stir fry another minute or so. Add the sesame oil

Add the sauce around the edge to heat and then toss through

Plate and serve immediately
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Important: It is critical to rinse the meat with water before marinating. Failure to do this will cause flatulance in some people hours later. From time to time I have experienced this after a Chinese meal in varying degrees. I put it down to bad ingredients. The worst was a restaurant in Sacremento for lunch. That afternoon was one of the most bizarre and looking back funniest times of my life. Quite a story. Until I experimented in cooking with bicarb and suffered the symptoms I never connected the dots. I actually did a test to prove it and sure enough. Enough hot air to keep a balloon in flight for an hour.

240g Lamb
2 tsp Bicarb

1 Tbs soy sauce
3 Tbs rice wine
1 Tbs cornflour
2 tsp sugar
Pinch umami
Pinch salt

Black pepper

1 Onion
1 Wombok Stem
1 Red Chilli
2 Tbs peanut oil
1/4 tsp sesame oil
50ml Mongolian Lamb Sauce
         (Ayam brand is great)

I actually use forequarter chops. Cut the meat away from the bone as best you can. Flatten completely with a meat mallet then follow the recipe. The final shapes don't have to be uniform. Just roughly the same size overall and easy to eat with chopsticks. 

In the 1980's I spent a good deal of effort learning to cook Chinese food. I even did a night course at the TAFE. I read all the recipe books. Try as I might it was never better the the local takeaway. The real recipes are not taught or published. TV chefs lead us down the wrong path. Dry, tough and tasteless dishes. We all know takeaway Chinese is not that good for us. But we keep going back for more. It is all about that addictive taste and texture. Cooking it yourself you get to control the amounts of msg, bicarb, salt and oil. Along with the quality and freshness of the ingredients. Thats the benefit. Otherwise its a waste of time and ingredients.

I mastered my Chinese cooking skills by understanding that Bicarb and MSG are simply a must in some dishes. Learn this and its easy. This recipe is for lamb but you can easily substitue beef or chicken or even kangaroo. I tried all the make it yourself sauce recipes but the Ayam Mongolian Lamb sauce is the best. Wombok stems give the exact right texture and compliment the onions. To make it sizzling get a sizzle plate from the local Chinese supermarket, heat it under a grill and use half the onion in the dish and half on the plate.

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