So yea. Back long time ago i went to Japan with my best friends. We had an awesome time there and one of the best meals we had was a really traditional style Sukiyaki. I was so nice and there was some lady that cooked it for you and everything. The beef was so good and everything was just great. Well i felt like i had to make it. Since no where in Ann Arbor which i have seen has a good sukiyaki it was my goal to make an awesome sukiyaki. This was my take at sukiyaki. I took a bunch of recipes all over the place and my memory of japan and did this. The ingredients might not be exactly what is in sukiyaki but it worked. Hopefully i can make it even better as i keep making it!
here are the pictures of my sukiyaki adventure
So the ingredients i used are
- 5-7 large Sukiyaki sliced beef (Thin slices of really tender marbled beef)
- Half a package of Shirataki (Konnyaku noodles does matter color)
- Half a package of Firm Tofu
- 2-3 Naganegi (Japanese Bunching Onions, they are in between a leek and a green onion)
- Handful of Shungiku (Chrysanthemum Leafs)
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1/4 cup of soy sauce
- 1/4 cup of mirin
- Slice of Beef Suet (Fat from the kidney but any fat would really do)
- White rice
- 1 egg
You first want to start out by cooking the Shirataki. First chill the shirataki (or take it right out of the fridge) and then boil it for about 5 minutes. You should notice that it has gotten a little stiffer now. After you cook it cool it really quickly to stop it from cooking and to chill the noodles. Cut them into nice lengths so you don’t have to slurp it. Next chop up all your other ingredients. Slice the Naganegi ince long diagnol slices. Wash the Shungiku and then slice the hard root part. Usually it will come with a longer stem which is really hard to eat. You want to cut that off. Finally cut the firm tofu into nice 1-2 inch blocks or so. The blocks should be big enough so they don’t fall apart when picked up with chopsticks but not too small. Oil a pan on medium heat and fry it on all sides so you get a nice brown on all the sides.
Now it’s time to start the actual Sukiyaki cooking! Start out by heating a nice pan on low-medium heat. A iron sukiyaki pan would be the best but i didn’t have one at the time so i used a frying pan. First melt some Beef Suet so there is enough oil to cook. The Beef Suet provides a really nice flavor. Then turn the heat up to medium heat. Start cooking some of Naganegi in the pan. You want to get the flavor of the Naganegi in the oil. Turn it so both sides of the Naganegi get cooked. Right before the Naganegi starts to brown slightly put the slices of beef on top of the Naganegi. I moved the Naganegi around so that all the slices of beef would lay on top of it. I let it cook till the meat was still red but also turning color. Then i put the sugar on top of the beef and also the soy sauce and mirin. I carefully mixed the sauce together in the pan, in order not to break apart the pieces of meat. Then i added all the ingredients in except the Shungiku. I positioned all the ingredients so they would each be in a region of the pan. Right before the beef was just about done i put in the Shungiku because it cooks really fast. Voila! the Sukiyaki part is done. Eat it with a bowl of rice and 1 beaten egg. You have to dip the Sukiyaki into the egg then eat it over the rice! That’s the best way to eat it!!!!!!! Don’t chicken out and not use the egg! Bon app!
I have no idea what i made. Yesterday i was talking to Mojtaba about Persian food and i was like damn i should make some Persian Food. I usually do the generic saffron rice but i wanted to play with some spices today. I went through a bunch of different spices and smelled them and tasted them to see if they fit into what i thought of Persian food. Well at the end i came up with Allspice, Cloves, Cumin and Cardomom seeds. It worked out great but i have a feeling they all had similar flavors. I don’t know if that’s suppose to be a good thing or a wasteful thing.
I first preheat the oven to 400F. I didn’t really take pictures of everything this time but basically i made a dry rub of all the spices (minus the shell of the cardamom) and also some fresh peppercorns and salt. I have a spice grinder which is one of the best things i’ve ever bought. I put the dry rub all over some chicken thighs and then let it sit for a while. I then browned the skin of the chicken and then put it aside. I used the left over oil and threw in a bunch of sliced onions. I added some more of the rub mix to the onions. Then i threw in basmati rice, and some blanched almonds. I really like eating basmati with almonds. After tossing it for a while i poured the water to cook the rice. I then put the chicken back in. I grinded a small pinch of saffron with sugar and then melted it in some hot water. This brings out the most of the saffron. After the water in the rice has boiled for a little i poured in the saffron mix. I swished the water around once and then threw it with the top on in the preheated oven. I let it stand for like an hour. I took it out cut up some roma tomatoes. I took out the chicken and then mixed up the tomatoes with the rice. The nice thing about this is that you get a nice crust of rice on the bottom that isn’t burnt but when you stir the rice the crust comes off and you get a really nice crunch with the almonds and rice in the rice. That’s basically it. You can try it and see how it goes. But it was really good. Next time i make it i’ll take pictures. This time it was really just a test.
Soooo i have many different things in the recipe backlog. I’ve made so much but i thought i’d start off with something simple. It’s Mark’s kimbap! I used to always buy the kimbap on the weekends at the manna store down the street and paid the 7 or 9 bucks for the two rolls. I then thought to myself damn i spend a lot on kimbap. So i thought why don’t i just make my own kimbap!!! I went and bought the ingredients and figured i could actually make like a bunch of kimbap rolls for the same price as 1. So i bought all the ingredients at manna and made them myself.
Here is the end result of my kimbap adventure!
The ingredients i used were very simple
- For the beef
- 1/2 Pound Thinly Sliced Beef (Bulgogi sliced beef)
- 1 tablespoons of grated ginger
- 2 tablespoons of grated korean pear
- 4 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
- 1/2 medium onion
- For the rest of the kimbap
- Package of Burdock root strips
- Package of pickled radish
- 2-3 carrots
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 tablespoon of mirin
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 1/2 cup of frozen spinach
- 2 teaspoon sesame oil
- a bunch of cooked white rice
- a bunch of seaweed sheets
I put the ingredients but for the bulgogi i really just did it by feel. I threw the sliced beef into a big ziplock bag and then threw in all the other ingredients for the bulgogi in the bag and shook it all up. Basically you want a sweetish marinade so that the beef absorbs it all. The grated pears actually contain calpain which is a natural meat tenderizer like in papaya and kiwis. It also adds a nice clean taste. So shake it up and let it sit for a while in the marinade. Remember don’t let it sit too long or it’ll get too soft. While that’s marinating go and prepare the eggs. I beat up the eggs and added mirin and sugar to make the eggs taste sweet. I was going to add some dashi too but got lazy. Basically i was making edo-style tamago but without all the ingredients. So cook and while you cook the eggs fold them so it creates a nice thick rectangle piece of egg. Boil the frozen spinach till it’s done. Then take it out and chill it in cold water. Strain and then mix the spinach with the sesame oil. Slice up all the vegetables so they are nice strips to be put into the kimbap. After the meat has tenderized go and throw the meat and onions in a medium-high heat pan and cook it. I usually just put the meat in and not the juices because more juice will come out of the meat when you cook it.
Now it’s just time to put it all together. Lay the seaweed down on your bamboo sushi roll roller and then spread a thin layer of rice all over the sheet. Don’t put too much rice or you won’t be able to put a lot of ingredients inside. Then lay all the ingredients down in the center of the roll. Put however much of each you like. Then roll it up however style you like rolling it. Voila! Simple Kimbap! You can now feed an army of hungry people! Enjoy!
Ok so i guess it has been a very long time since i last posted. Lots of stuff has happened and lots of food has been cooked since the last time i posted. I guess when i went back home for winter i kinda got lazy and stopped posting. That doesn’t mean i stopped cooking! And it doesn’t mean i stopped taking pictures of my cooking! (Well i’ve only taken pictures of a handful of them) I hope to put them all up eventually when i get back to posting!
So i guess i’ll say what i did over winter break. I went to the Philippines, Hong Kong and China. I started to play golf. I just joined some group lessons offered by umove. I don’t really expect that much out of the lessons except the fundamentals. I’m pretty sure i’m not going to be tiger woods with 6 45-minute group lessons. Truthfully, I didn’t know that golf would be as fun as it is. I actually enjoy going to the driving range and hitting some golf balls. I’m just doing the 6-iron so far. Maybe in time i’ll invest in a half set and start working the courses!
On another note i’m going to start an Ann Arbor message board. I don’t know if anyone will join or post on the message board but i don’t really care. I don’t even know if anyone reads this blog. But i’d like something like sdunderground for ann arbor. Facebook seems to kinda suck at that and only a message board can really do some things like that. O well whatever. Maybe if i build it they will come.
