Beef Casserole

Well, I've been busy so it's been a long time since I've posted any recipes. The temperature is now dipping below 20C so it's feeling cold to me now!  That, and I also finally have a long weekend to sort myself out and enjoy a bit of cooking!

Yesterday I decided that today was going to be a beef casserole day, something I haven't eaten for many years!  After reading various recipes and taking out the bits I like, here is the finished recipe! 

I have very happy memories of hot dumplings made with suet, but these potato ones are healthier, if indeed you can even buy suet in Japan!  You can add more vegetables as you like, but the carrot and onions are essential! No picture yet - because I didn't follow my advice about making sure the pot didn't run dry...  Just remembered it in time, still delicious but it was a bit too dry and caramelised!

Ingredients (serves 1 very hungry Alison with 2 too many dumplings!)
200g stewing beef
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, cut into 1/2cm discs
1 large mushroom, sliced thickly
1 tsp garlic paste
1 generous tsp marmite (you could use a beef stock cube)
200ml boiling water
2 medium potatoes
25g grated cheese
1 tbsp flour
2-3 tbsp maybe of breadcrumbs
1 egg

Method

• In a large saucepan, heat the vegetable oil until hot.  Add the beef and brown quickly on all sides.  Add the chopped onions and garlic paste and fry until golden brown.  Add the carrot and mushroom, and season with thyme and a good grating of freshly ground black pepper.
• Meanwhile, boil the water and mix with the marmite or stock cube.  Pour into the saucepan, bring to the boil, then cover and leave to simmer for one hour, adding about 100ml more of boiling water every now and then if you feel it needs it.
• After starting the casserole simmering, halve the potatoes and boil in water for 15-20 minutes until tender.  Remove from the pan and mash in a bowl with the raw egg, cheese, flour and breadcrumbs.  Season with freshly ground black pepper.
•  After one hour, shape the potato mixture into balls, add a little more boiling water, and lay the potato dumplings on top of the casserole.  Re-cover and continue to simmer for 15 minutes.
•  Serve immediately in a large bowl.

Bite-Sized Pepper Steak

OK, the picture really doesn't do this justice... The beef isn't really burnt, but it's a really wet day today and the lighting on this photograph is terrible.

Although I've never been vegetarian (I like sausages too much!), my family and friends know that I eat very little meat as it is, but instead add smaller quantities (usually ham) to vegetable dishes.

As a child, I hated beef, and I still never choose it in restaurants because it's never cooked as I like it. Since I came to Japan, and discovered the sliced medium roast beef in the supermarkets, I now eat it every few months just as it is. It is still pink, but is actually cooked, and really melts in the mouth.

Today, I decided to make pepper steak for the first time - I don't think I've ever eaten it before. For this many mouthfuls, I used a 100g piece of steak.

Ingredients
100g piece of good quality steak
a lot of freshly ground black or mixed peppercorns
about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
about 4 tablespoons of mirin
olive oil for frying

Method

• Cut the steak into bite-sized pieces.
• Grind the pepper onto a plate.
• Coat both sides of the steak with the pepper.
• Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, and add the steak pieces. Brown both sides.
  
• REMOVE FROM THE HEAT.
• Quickly pour in the soy sauce and mirin (exact quantities don't matter, just roughly 2 parts mirin, 1 part ssoy sauce). It will bubble vigorously and thicken a little. It will also produce an impressive flame if you forget to remove from the heat... Make sure that the beef has been coated in this sauce. Tip: use the sauce to cook the beef to your liking, rather than the browning stage - the bubbling sauce will quickly cook the beef through.
  
• Serve immediately.
  

Mabo-doufu or Spicy Beef and Tofu on Rice

As always, I am cooking with minimum ingredients so this is my version of mabo-doufu, or spicy beef and tofu. Often recipes include sake, and chicken stock. It's eaten hot, served on steaming rice. This is a Chinese-Szechuan dish, very popular in Japan. This looks to be quite high in fat - I wasn't sure how lean my beef was, although I chose a pack that looked lean, for the nutrition data I probably overestimated the fat content, calling it 75% lean meat, 25% fat.

Nutrition Data (per serving, including rice)
Calories: 658
Protein: 33g
Fat: 34g
Carbohydrate: 66g
Dietary Fibre: 6g

Ingredients (serves 2)
1 tsp olive oil
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
3 spring onions, snipped (reserve 2 teaspoons of green top for a garnish)
2 heaped teaspoon of spicy bean paste (toubanjan）/you could probably use a mixture of chilli flakes and sauce
200g minced beef/ you could use pork or TVP
2 heaped teaspoons red miso
300g of silken tofu, chopped into chunks
2 tbsp reduced salt soy sauce
100ml water
2 tsp of cornflour or potato starch mixed with a little water
400g cooked brown rice to serve


Method

• Cook the rice according to instructions.
• Put the olive oil in a small pan, with the garlic and spring onions. Fry over a low heat for about 2 minutes, add the ginger paste and spicy bean paste and fry for another minute until thick.
  
• Add the ground beef and fry until it changes colour. The beef will quickly produce more fat for frying. Stir in the miso paste.
• Stir in the water, soy sauce and tofu being careful not to break the tofu too much; cover and cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes.
• Stir in the cornflour paste and heat for about a minute more until thickened slightly.
• Put the hot cooked rice into bowls, and top with the mabo-doufu. Sprinkle with the reserved spring onion tops.
• Serve immediately.
  

Sliced beef, the ultimate fast food!

Living in Japan, I am often struck by what a convenient country this is... When you go to a supermarket, there is a huge range of freshly-made meals and salads to tempt you. The same goes for the 24 hour convenience stores. And because of demand, turnover is very high - meaning that your meal was probably prepared no more than a couple of hours ago. In England, there are considerably more frozen ready-meals with lots of additives, but just not the same choice in fresh food.

I'm not really a big meat-eater, but sometimes I really like the fresh sliced cooked beef that I can get in the supermarkets here. I'd never go to the effort of cooking the beef myself, mostly because I would never be able to cook it to the same perfection as I can buy here. In England, on the odd occasion that I ate beef, I would always have it well-done. Here, it's delicious served medium-rare and it really melts in your mouth. It comes pre-packaged with a small salad, sliced onions and a light gravy. I love it!

Okonomiyaki

Credit: http://japanesefood.about.com/od/holidaytraditionalfood/r/okonomiyaki.htm with amendments!

Serves 4-6

Okonomiyaki is said to be Japanese-style pizza. This recipe makes Osaka-style okonomiyaki. There are lots of toppings. Okonomi means according to your taste, yaki means grilled. The only essential ingredients are the flour, stock, eggs, cabbage and spring onion. Any other ingredients can be added, according to your taste. I like to cook proscuitto ham and kimchi (pepperdew peppers from Sainsbury's work well instead of kimchi!)

Ingredients:

• 2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cup dashi soup stock, water, or any other stock
  
• 4-6 eggs
• 1 - 1 1/4 lb cabbage
• 6 tbsps chopped spring onion
• 2/3 cup bonito flakes, if liked
  
• 12 - 18 strips of thinly sliced pork or beef
• For toppings:
• Ao-nori (ground or fine strips of green seaweed)
• Okonomiyaki sauce, tonkatsu sauce, or fruity brown sauce
  
• Mayonnaise

Preparation:

Pour the stock or water in a bowl. Mix the flour in the stock. Rest the batter for an hour in the refrigerator. Chop cabbage fairly finely. Take about 1/2 cup of the batter (to make one sheet of okonimiyaki) in another bowl. Mix chopped cabbage (about 1/4 lb) and chopped green onion (about 1 tbsp) in the batter. Make a hole in the middle of the batter and add an egg in the hole. Stir the batter. Add meat and kimchi or your choice of toppings in the batter. (Some people like to add meat and seafood). Heat a large frying pan and oil slightly. Pour the batter mixture over the pan and make a round. Cook 5-7 minutes , flip the okonomiyaki and cook for 5-7 more minutes. Flip the okonomiyaki again, spread okonomiyaki sauce on top and drizzle with mayonnaise in a criss-cross pattern. Sprinkle seaweed over the sauce. Sprinkle katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and beni-shoga (red ginger) if you like. Makes 4-6 sheets.