Some Kinda Korean

Fresh, clean, simple flavors.

Just perfect for hot, humid days. 

I called it “Some Kinda Korean” so as not to have someone come after me telling me it’s not.

I used a Korean Beef Bulgogi Marinade. That’s all.

I love the simplicity of their summer dishes. It’s more of a salad. 

Easy, light, refreshing ….. preparation is easy too. My fav kind.

INGREDIENTS

Beef slices (for stir frying)

Beef Bulgogi Marinade (bottled, any brand will do)

Dash of sesame oil

White vinegar

Ground white pepper

Carrots, julienned

Spinach, cut into about 2” lengths (or your preferred greens)

Toasted sesame seeds

Oil for stir frying

* I don’t have exact measurements for this. Just use enough marinade sauce to coat beef generously. The vinegar was added to compliment the sweetness of the sauce. 

METHOD

Toss beef slices with the bulgogi marinade sauce, dash of sesame oil, dash of vinegar and ground white pepper into a baggy or container. Coat beef well with the marinade. 

Leave in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Blanch carrots and spinach (or just have them raw if you prefer. I like blanching the carrots as it makes it a little sweeter in flavor.)

Drain the veges.

Heat a little oil in the pan.

Stir fry the marinaded beef and remove from pan once cooked. Leaving it too long will make it tough to chew. 

If you have some liquid left from the marinade, add it to the pan and cook it down to a thick syrupy consistency. Otherwise, simply pour a small amount of bulgogi sauce from the bottle and heat through. Spoon over cooked beef.

Serve beef and veges over fluffy rice or just as a salad on it’s own. 

Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top and devour!

Sweet Sour Beef with Fennel

I know, I know ... sweet sour pork is the traditional Chinese dish. I just like changing things around ... again. I love sweet and sour pork but unfortunately, today, when I was so craving for it, I didn't have pork in my freezer but these 2 pieces of wahyu tenderloin. Didn't feel like running out to the shops either ... let's improvise!

There's always a bulb of fennel in my fridge. Why not?

Guess what? It worked! Well, I wouldn't have tried it if I didn't think it'd work in the first place .... I mean, Wahyu beef ... Hellooo ...

INGREDIENTS

*Note: Sorry for the lack of measurements, but I really just threw this together and Chinese cooking is all about a dash of this and a dash of that anyway. Taste the sauce as you go along, adjust as you see fit.

beef , cut into cubes (you'll want to whack them silly later)

fennel, cut into wedges

onion, cut into wedges

about 1/4 cup tomato ketchup

vinegar (whatever type you have on hand, I used white vinegar, balsamic would've been good too) (in ratio to the ketchup, maybe 1 tbs unless you want it more sour than sweet)

dash or two of oyster sauce (a couple of tbs)

mustard (I used American style mustard and not the English blow-your-head-off mustard)

cornstarch for dredging

cornstarch + water mixture (to thicken sauce)

oil

METHOD

Pound the beef cubes using the back of a heavy meat knife or a meat mallet until you get nice, even, flat pieces.

Dredge the meat with cornstarch, shake excess off and shallow fry them in hot oil until slightly crisp. Remove.

In a clean pan, saute the onions lightly in a little oil (I like it with a bit of crunch), stir in fennel. Cook until slightly translucent. Stir in oyster sauce, ketchup, a good squeeze of the mustard bottle and vinegar to taste.

Add about a half cup water. Bring to a boil, simmer to reduce a little and add in cornstarch and water mixture to thicken the sauce.

Stir in beef pieces to coat evenly.

Garnish with some fennel fuzz if you like.

Serve hot with fluffy white rice.

*Did I confuse you enough? :P

I really should remember to measure out my stuff, it's just that I didn't think I'd be posting this until I tasted it. Alternatively, just use a basic sweet and sour recipe and substitute it with the beef. There! Easy peasy.

Sci-Fi Steak

The things that will get my husband into the kitchen to cook ...(eyes rolling). It's either a "MacGyver" dish or something like this... technical. Mr Extremes.

Maybe I shouldn't name it "Sci-Fi Steak" but "Scientific Steak". He watched a program called Kitchen Chemistry and the lightbulb on the top of his head lit up...and I could see the gears in his head start churning.

I'm not complaining, it turned out beautifully. If you like your steaks flavorful, juicy, tender and perfectly medium rare, this is the method to achieve it. This method creates the most evenly cooked steaks I've ever experienced....beautifully pink throughout. Not a graduation from fully cooked to the cold, raw centers we usually get when we ask for medium rare / rare "doneness". Is it only me or does anyone else have a problem with the term "doneness"?

UTENSILS

1 large pot

1 pair of long stainless steel tongs

1 chopstick / skewer

Elastic bands

Heatproof plastic bag / Baking bag

Cooking thermometer

Pan

INGREDIENTS

2 steaks of your choice

salt, pepper to taste

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

Clarified butter / Ghee

METHOD

Bring a pot of water to a steady 60˚C. Use cooking thermometer to accurately maintain temperature.

Season steaks.

Heat pan with a little clarified butter / ghee and quickly sear both sides of the steaks on high heat. Remove. Add the chopped garlic and onion into the hot pan and stir until aromas are released. Take care not to burn the garlic. Remove pan from heat. Return the steaks to the pan and stir to mix through.

Put pan contents into a heat proof plastic bag. Expell as much air as possible and seal with elastic bands. Be careful not to scald yourself.

- A sealed vacuum in the bag is ideal. But if a little care is taken and there are no obviously large pockets of air in the bag, the dish will work out fine.

This is where my husband went MacGyver on me and used a contraption made up of, a short length of stainless steel tube, elastic bands, a wine bottle stopper and its related vacuum pump to achieve a sealed vacuum without a commercial vacuum sealing device. -

Suspend the sealed bag in the pot of 60˚C water for a minimum of 2 hours.

Remove steaks from bag. Serve immediately, no resting needed.

Reserve liquid. Thicken and season to taste. Serve with steaks.

* Side dishes - roasted potatoes, vegetables etc.

Recommended read - see, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-vide. The method is apparently from the 1800's....where they found plastic bags, I wonder....hmmm. Searing the steaks first arguably has taste and food safety benefits. Keeping a 60˚C water bath sacrifices the last bit of tenderness but is above the recommended pasteurization temperature.

Ginger Beer Roast

I stepped out of my car parked in the garage after a long, tiring day. I sniffed the air and smelled the heavenly aroma of roasting meat. Hmm, my neighbours are having a barbeque again, I thought.

As I walked closer to the front door, the aroma got stronger and by the time I got my keys out to open the door, my tastebuds were on overdrive and I really wasn't looking forward to calling our corner eats shop for another takeout. I opened my front door and this giant waft of deliciousness practically knocked me over. Holy tingling tastebuds! I believe it's coming from my own kitchen! I crossed my fingers as I proceeded ever so not patiently to where it's coming from. What a sight for sore eyes! And I don't mean the number of pots and pans piled up high in my kitchen sink.

My husband (gasp) cooking (gasp) dinner for me (gasp gasp)! Okay, okay, a little over dramatic but hey, he gets inspired ever so rarely. And when he does, it's usually a "MacGyver" dish. Who or what is MacGyver? Gosh, you gotta be really old or really young to have not watched this series. It's about this cute guy, Richard Dean Anderson, character name, MacGyver, secret agent, who kicks the butts of baddies and getting through difficult situations the non violent way by using just whatever he could find and being resourceful without using a gun. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGyver.

And that was what my husband did.... no, not kick the butts of baddies...the MacGyver dish, remember? Well, he could kick some butt too if he wanted to but ..... anyway .... back to the subject...

He's a real meat and potatoes man, very much influenced by the days of Beano and Dandy comics (very British, the comics, I mean) and Desperate Dan and his cow pies ... no, not cow pies as in cow patties, but cow pies with the beef and the pastry complete with horns and tail. Check this out: http://www.dandy.com/Idols/30/dan

So, my meat and potatoes man with his MacGyver throw-together-whatever's-in-my-fridge-freezer-and-pantry dish. It's not fancy fine dining but it is good and satisfying....

a totally wholesome, farmhouse style dinner.

INGREDIENTS

500 g Rolled Roast of your choice

(he used topside)

A big handful of baby carrots, bite sized

1 large Fennel bulb, sliced into wedges

2 medium red onions, peeled

4 cloves Garlic, peeled and lightly crushed

3 - 4 waxy potatoes, scrubbed & quartered

2 sprigs Rosemary

1 cup Ginger Beer

1 tsp cornstarch + a little water

3 tbs Canola oil

Salt, pepper to taste

METHOD

Heat oil in a shallow oven proof pan. Lightly brown meat. Season to taste.

Remove from pan.

Throw in all vegetables in the same pan and toss to coat evenly. Season vegetables.

Place browned meat on top of vegetables.

Strip off rosemary leaves from stalk and sprinkle into pan. Alternatively, you can leave the rosemary on the stalks and remove before preparing the gravy.

Place uncovered in preheated oven at 150˚C for 45 mins for medium rare. Remove from oven. Put aside meat and vegetables. Deglaze pan with ginger beer. Thicken sauce with cornstarch mixture. Remove twine, carve and serve with gravy.