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!
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!
So in Sparta we eat Beef Gyros(I was going to call them souvlakis but i decided it was more a Gyro than a Souvlaki). Not just any Beef Gyros but Mark’s Beef Gyros! Gyros should really be made with Lamb but i didn’t have anymore Lamb so i used Beef instead. I cooked a large piece of meat but i only used like half of it to make my Gyros. Oh man the Tzatziki was Awesome! I think it would be even more awesome with some dill but i used only mint but it was great! Ohhh it wasn’t the best Gyros in the world but it was actually a really decent Gyro. The best i had was when me and one of the Fobtastic 5 went island hopping in Greece. While waiting for the boat to the next island we had some Gyros… OMG THAT WAS THE BEST 2 BUCKS I SPENT!!!!! If you travel to Greece try whatever the tourbook says once and then go for the stuff the real people eat.
Here are the pics of what Gyros chinese style look like
The ingredients may seem long but really they aren’t
- For the Tzatziki
- 1/2 Cucumber Peeled, Seeded, Chopped and Drained
- 1 Cup Plain Yogurt, Drained (I kinda skipped this one because I was lazy but you should it’s better)
- 2 Teaspoons of Fresh Lemon Juice
- 2 Teaspoons of Minced Garlic
- Bunch of Mint chopped (Maybe a handful?)
- 2 Teaspoons of Oregano
- 1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
- For the Greek Salad
- Couple leaves of Romaine Hearts torn into pieces (I used romaine leaves which i had)
- Handful of Mint leaves chopped
- Handful Cherry Tomatoes or Grape Tomatoes halved
- 1/2 Seedless Cucumber sliced into disks
- Handful of Kalamata Olives
- 2 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice
- 1/4 Cup of Olive Oil
- Flat Pita Bread
- For the Beef
- 1 Steak or however much you want (You should really use lamb though)
- Lemon Juice
- Oregano
- Minced Garlic
- Olive Oil
So basically there a couple parts to this. You can do them somewhat in parallel. First I seasoned the Beef. I put the Lemon Juice, Oregano, Garlic and Olive Oil in a bag and threw the Steak in and let it bounce around to coat the whole thing and left it to the side while i turned the broiler on. Then i threw in all the Tzatziki ingredients in a blender and blended it all. That’s basically all there is to do with the Tzatziki. Just throw it in the fridge while you wait. Then i made the Greek Salad. Just throw together all the cut pieces of veggies. Don’t put the lemon vinaigrette yet. Wait till the meat is done to do that. Then when the broiler is ready throw in the meat. I let it sit in there for about 7-8 minutes on each side to get a medium-rare. Take out the beef and slice it into thin slices and let it sit in it’s juice again. Throw the pitas
in the broiler too so they get nice and soft and warm. Throw the Greek Salad Vinaigrette in the Salad and then put together your Gyro. I put the meat then the salad then poured all the Tzatziki over it and wrapped it up in aluminum foil. Bon App! (This takes a little longer than most of my recipes. Probably 20-25 minutes total)
