B&B

Burdock and Beef

Jubilation! I feel that and at the same time things get hectic when the holidays are approaching. Our meal selection moves to the ”No-Fuss” zone often (like every day).

A quick inventory of my refrigerator indicates I need to use burdock very soon. This root vegetable is a fairly long survivor in the vegetable bin though, the flavor might diminish and the nutrition value may be questionable…yada yada yada…the bottom line is that I don’t want to throw it away.

It’s not exactly a 30 minute meal but for me it uses the familiar nikomi (煮込み/stewing) method, so no need to see the recipe. It resembles sukiyaki, the sweet beef flavor is just what you need to quiet down your hunger before jumping into the car to catch that new movie starting in 15 minutes!

Ingredients and Instruction for 4 servings (Print Recipe Here)

Necessary equipment: drop lid – use one size smaller pan lid or make with foil

• 1 burdock
• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 300g thinly sliced beef (At the Asian market it is called sukiyaki beef) cut in 2 inch strips
  
• 2 cups dashi stock (I used 1 packet of powdered dashi dissolved in 2 cups hot water)
  
• 4 Tablespoons of sugar or 4 packets of pure stevia for a sugar-free version
• 3 Tablespoons of sake
• 2-3 Tablespoons of soy sauce or tamari sauce for gluten-free version
• Toppings -1-2 stalks of green onion or mitsuba (三つ葉/Japanese honeywort) chopped for garnish (optional)

1. Prepare burdock – Do not peel the skin. Scrub and wash burdock with a vegetable brush under running water thoroughly. Slice in 1/2 inch diagonally. Soak in water for 5 minutes, drain. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan at medium heat. Add prepared burdock and sauté for 3 -4 minutes.
3. Add beef and dashi stock. When it starts boiling, lower the heat to low. Scoop out scum that appears on top with a spoon and discard into a bowl filled with water to rinse the spoon.
4. Add sugar and sake and place the drop lid on top. Simmer for 10 minutes.
   
5. Add soy sauce and cook for 20 minutes. until the liquid is nearly evaporated.
6. Heat the pan to high and stir the burdock and beef to intensify the saltiness about 1 minute (All the liquid should be gone at this point).
7. Serve hot over cooked rice and garnish with chopped green onion or mitsuba, dropping an egg yolk is also a nice move.

Variation – Because I like to have some sauce in rice bowl, I shorten the cooking time – see step #5 and I skip # 6.

 

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

                                                   - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Goodies

Meatball  Miso soup

We are having warm days lately – last Saturday it reached 80 degrees – and not a good time to find out the air-conditioning in your car is not working properly. I was on a last minute shopping spree before going to Japan. Frantic and rushed, I don’t think I was enjoying the sunshine as much as I should be grateful to feel. 

I must use up all the left over goodies like drying up burdock roots, green onion that was wilting, limp carrots, new-shooting potatoes before the trip and it had to be quick to prepare. Warm soup on a hot day is not ideal but this gives me some breather. Goody! I can cross out something from my travel check list…only 8 more to go.

The recipe I loosely followed was found in a old Japanese magazine and I like the ginger flavor in meatball and no need for dashi stock. The butter is optional yet adds depth and fat of course to it.

Ingredients and instruction Serves 4

• Ground beef 1/2 pound
• Ground pork 1/2 pound
• Grated ginger 1-1/2 Tablespoon
• Green onion 2 stalks finely chopped
• Potato starch or corn starch 2 Tablespoons
• Sake 2 Tablespoons
• Soy sauce or Tamari sauce 1 Tablespoon
• Burdock about 6 inches length peeled and thinly sliced diagonally. Soak in cold water for 5-8 minutes.
  
• 1 small carrot slice into half rounds
• 2 small potato peeled and chopped then soak in cold water for 3-4 minutes.
  
• Miso paste 4-6 Tablespoons
• Broccoli 1 adult-sized fist worth; divide into individual florets 
• Butter 1 teaspoon

1. Put meats, ginger, green onion, starch, sake and soy sauce in large bowl and knead well then make1-1/2 inch balls. Set aside .
2. Boil 5 cups of water in pan. Gently slide the meat balls in and simmer for 1-2 minutes.
   
3. Put burdock, carrots and potatoes into the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes at medium heat. Scoop off white scum that appears on top.
4. Dissolve miso paste in the ladle with little bit of cooking liquid from #3 before adding to the pan. Do the taste test. Add more miso paste if necessary. If it’s too salty, pour some water in.
5. Add broccoli florets and cook for about 1 minute.
6. Add butter (optional) and serve hot.
   

We must consume cucumber also. Made quick pickled cucumber.Cut cucumber in chunks and put in the Ziploc bag. Add vinegar, salt and chili pepper to taste. Push air out, close tight and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. 

We had a wonderful Easter service at our church. What a blessing!The Easter basket/nest plus blue chocolate eggs are from William Sonoma. Very pretty but the chocolate is overly sweet. I hope I could re-use next year, not the eggs.A friend brought me this candle holder filled with Easter candies. So nice of her!Easter dinner made easy by purchasing the honey baked ham.

My son’s friends were here for last games over pizza. My son is concentrating on his own game. Do-over birthday cake- Strawberry short cake for real.I started to make some kind of design yet I couldn’t finish it. I figured that those guys don’t care how the cake looks so I stopped caring like whatever.’Thumbs-up’ taste for sure!And we had some left over for Easter. Spring came in full force.The weeping cherry tree. We didn’t know it’s pink when we planted it.Asian pear tree

Neighbor's cherry blossom. Can you say gorgeous?Hey, you on the right, your days are Round-Up!

Neighbor’s lawn ornament – This is so cute, right?

I’m  hoping to see cherry blossoms in Japan too. My blog will resume sometime in April. Y’all comeback and see me now, ya hear?

Well seasoned

Three vegetable dishes

I’m cutting back on meat lately, due to a lack on meal planning. What? 5:45 already? The time flies when I’m watching Korean drama. I don’t have time to defrost meat, beside I really need to use these vegetables before they get moldy like sooo yesterday.

I have to come up with vegetable dishes that make any vegetarian proud?
Easy (going), wholesome, and well seasoned …Thank you for the compliments but let’s not talk about me, I have a dinner to prepare.

The crown daisy (shun giku 春菊) is not available in regular markets and spoils rather quickly so it’s shame to waste it, today it is my number one priority veggie. This vegetable has harshness (アク) to it, in another words, I can’t eat it fresh. I must tame this sucker by giving it a hot bath…now I’m on my way to a vegetable galore meal!  All three are accompanied well with cooked rice.

Burdock and Crown Daisy Salad for three people

• 1 Dried whole hot red pepper. Remove seeds and slice.
• Rice vinegar 2 Tablespoons
• Soy sauce 1 Tablespoon
• Sugar 1 - 2 teaspoons
• Sesame oil 1 teaspoon
• Burdock roots about 10 inch length. Wash well and cut into 2 inch lengths then soak in cold water for 5 minutes.
• Corn starch or flour 1-2 Tablespoons
• Crown Daisy 1 bundle about 4-5 stems. Wash thoroughly  .
• 1 teaspoon sea salt.
• Fried bean curd (油あげ) 2-3 Place in a strainer over the sink and carefully pour very hot water over it to remove grease residue. Slice. Note: Fried bean curd can be frozen but not tofu.
• Oil for frying

1. Make dressing first – combine hot red pepper, rice vinegar, soy sauce , sugar and sesame oil in a small bowl. Keep refrigerated.
2. Prepare ice water in a large bowl. In a medium pan, boil 2 cups of water. When the water starts to boil sprinkle in the salt . Put the stems of the Crown Daisy in first and boil for 30 seconds in an up-right position then lower the leafy part into the pan for another 30 seconds, cook a little bit longer if you like tender texture, however you loose more nutrients that way. Drain the water then immediately immerse in icy water. Drain and squeeze liquid from the vegetable. Cut in about 2 inch lengths. Set aside.
3. Paper towel dry the burdock, put in a zip lock bag and seal it. Pound the burdock with mallet or rolling pin to crush, not smash the texture a little but. Heat oil to about 340 degrees in a heavy bottom pan.
   
4. Pour corn starch or flour in the zip lock. Seal it and shake the bag to coat the burdock well. Dust off excess flour.
   
5. Fry the burdock for about 2-3 minutes until tender but still firm. Place on a paper towel to remove excess oil.
   
6. Arrange fried bean curd on a plate then put the  crown daisy on top and lastly the fried burdock on top. Pour dressing over the salad.

Tofu keeps well in the refrigerator but even it eventually reaches its expiration date. Old tofu gets acidic in my opinion, when the water in the package becomes cloudy it is time to throw it away. I usually remember it’s there but occasionally it gets pushed further back in the refrigerator or someone leaves it on a higher shelf that I can’t see…put the candle back… I mean tofu back where I can see it. Note; My joke is from an old movie Young Frankenstein.
My son does not like this dish very much saying that he is not into tofu. Ou-key then, you don’t know tofu.

Seasoned Pan Fried Tofu

• 1 packaged firm tofu
• 2 green onion chopped
• 2 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 red hot pepper, remove seeds and slice
• 3 Tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (Korean preferred) More if you like spicy.
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1. Remove tofu from its package and wash under running water. Wrap in paper towel and place it between two cutting boards to squeeze out some of the water, about 6-8 minutes. The longer you do this the tougher tofu gets.
   
2. In the meantime, combine the green onions, garlic, red hot pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds and chili powder in a small bowl.
3. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Slice the tofu into thin slices. Slide the tofu in with a spatula. Brown tofu until the edge is crispy about 4-5 minutes. Do the same to other side.
   
4. Lower the heat a bit and spoon the green onion/garlic mixture over the top of the tofu. Cover and let steam for 2-3 minutes. Serve immediately. Saucy variation; Add about 1/4 cup of water and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch to green onion/garlic mixture and mix well. Pour in the pan and cook until the sauce thickens and tofu is coated with the sauce.

Ginger la-yu marinated cucumber is appetite enhancer, with this and rice I could eat a lot! Ginger la-yu is also used as seasoning in fried rice or sautéed vegetable.

Ginger La-yu

• 1Green onion chopped small
• 1 garlic minced
• 2 Red hot pepper seeds removed and  sliced
• Olive oil 1 Tablespoon and 1/4 cup
• Dried powdered ginger 10g
• Soy sauce 1 teaspoon

1. Heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.
2. Put green onion and garlic in and sauté until garlic turns brown, turn off heat.
3. After green onion and garlic is at room temperature, add olive oil, dried ginger and soy sauce and mix well. Keep refrigerated. Use in two weeks.

Preparing cucumber –  Wash and dry 2 small cucumbers (I used Persian  cucumber that has tiny seeds) then pound to break up into chunks. Put in a bowl and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon sea salt. Add 2 teaspoon of ginger la-yu and 1 teaspoon each of soy sauce, white sesame seeds and rice vinegar. Combine well and chill in refrigerator for 20 minutes or so.

Market find – Thai fresh ginger. A little bit easier on the wallet than Japanese new ginger but very tough. Yiiike! Where is the head?

Forgotten pumpkin – I bought it on impulse before Christmas. It became hard as a rock. I had to cook in a pressure cooker first to see if it is even still good.It was good! I made Pumpkin Flan with Pumpkin Chantilly Cream on top.

I momently forgot that I’m on a diet but it was super delicious!

My neighbor friend shared parsley with us. (This apple is ‘Junami’ a new variety)We sprinkled fresh parsley on top of the spaghetti meat sauce my husband made. My vegetarian days are over…..

No more frost, just rain

I can see the true color of the Burning Bush now.