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merry christmas

Korean BBQ

Korean BBQ is delicious. This is my variation of Korean BBQ, also known as bulgogi. Marinated in a Korean teriaki sauce, the beef comes out juicy and smoky with the soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sesame, and onion flavors glazing the tender strips of beef. Typically, the cut of choice is the short rib, but for this recipe, I used "rib steaks." (Short ribs are hard to come by in Ireland).

Bulgogood!


Ingredients

STEP 1 - Prep the beef
I like to tenderize the rib steak before marinating. To do so, with the dull side of heavy blade (a Chinese meat cleaver works nicely), pound the meat across the grain until the meat expands and becomes loose. Do both sides 3 or 4 times.

Lemon and ginger



STEP 2 - Marinade
With my marinade, I'm going for a modified home-made terriyaki sauce. You want enough maridade to coat each side of the beef pieces, but they shouldn't swim in the marinade. Toss soy sauce with several slices of ginger, stalks of green onion, and cloves of garlic into a mixing bowl. Add a pinch of brown sugar to taste and the juice from half a lemon. A touch of sesame oil and some kimchi juice should finish it off nicely. Taste it and add more of each ingredient as you wish. Add beef to the mixture and marinate for 2-3 hours.

The coals look ready


STEP 3 - Fire up the grill
Fire up the grill. Once coals are very, very hot, begin searing the meat. Remember these pieces are thin, so don't overdo it. You want to find a balance between retaining the juiciness of the meat while creating a slight carmelization effect in order to bring out all of the full flavor of the sauce.

Flip once or twice. A bit charred is okay.


STEP 4 - Serving
I like to serve with some good sticky Korean white rice and pickled dishes. Kimchi and various pickled side dishes can be bought at any Asian store. Enjoy!

Delicious!

Jook

Jook is a rice-based porridge that is eaten in many Asian cultures. It is a true testament to the ingenuity of the Asian people to transform a bland staple product, rice, into a flavorful dish. Fish, chicken, pork, and beef bones are often used to create the base flavor for this soup-like dish. Jook is the perfect host for a series of side dishes or leftovers from the previous night, and like many Chinese dishes, can be prepared in bulk and refrigerated for the next day's meal. Chinese Jook is cheap, easy to make, and delicious!

Ham, ginger, and scallion


While jook is often prepared by the Chinese in it's simplest form, known as bah jook (white jook), this recipe will show you how to make jook with meat bones and Chinese preserved duck egg (pei dan). Chinese perserved duck egg has the texture of a hard-boiled egg with a truly unique and acquired taste. Don't let its appearance turn you away from trying this delicacy of Chinese cuisine.

Jook
Preparation time: 10 min
Cooking time: 2 hrs
Servings: 6

Ingredients
Rice (washed) - try jasmine rice - 1 cup
Water - 4 quarts
Raw Ham - flavor tip from my dad - 2 pounds
Poultry, Pork, or Beef Bones (a carcass from a previous roast will also work well)
4 Chinese Preserved Duck Eggs (optional)
Fresh Ginger
Scallions
Sesame Oil
Chinese Cooking Wine
Salt & White Pepper

STEP 1 - Bring it all together
Combine the washed rice and water in a large cooking pot and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, finely julienne the peeled ginger and chop the scallions. Toss both into the mixture, saving some of the scallions for garnish. Remove all of the fat from the ham, cut into large chunks, and toss into the pot. Add the meat bones or carcass. Sprinkle some Chinese cooking wine into the pot.

The essence of Chinese Jook


TIP: Peel the ginger with a spoon


Finely sliced ginger


STEP 1.5 (optional) - Quack the egg
Carefully place the eggs (shell and all) into a pot of gently boiling water for one minute. Remove and peel with cold, running water. Chop the egg into bite size pieces and set aside.


Peeled Chinese preserved duck egg


Rice, water, and ham


STEP 2: Simmer down
Once the mixture comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover. Stir occasionally so that the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. Simmer for 2 hours or until the jook is at the desired consistency. Some like their jook thick and some like it thin, so add water as necessary. It should be about the consistency of southern grits.

Halfway through cooking, remove the ham, chop into small bite size pieces, and return to the pot.

During the last 15 mintues of cooking, taste, and season with salt and pepper. Add the Chinese preserved duck egg.

STEP 3: Serve it up
Scoop jook into a bowl. Garnish with scallions, a few drops of sesame oil, and a teaspoon of Chinese cooking wine. Serve with side dishes (leftover meat, stews, Korean kimchee, cooked vegetables, etc.)

Image Coming Soon!

Vietnamese Beef Pho

Pho (pronounced like 'fun' without the 'n') is a traditional Vietnamese noodle soup, characterized by its beef and anise flavor. My friend showed me this Vietnamese recipe one day, when I was still living in Dublin. The most difficult part for us was finding the beef bones. She said that they traditionally use large bones with plenty of marrow in them, but the closest we could find in Dublin butcher shops were ox tails. The other ingredients can be found in any Asian market.

Smiling onions.

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To describe Pho, I'd say it's a rather delicate dish consisting of rice noodles, meatballs, and beef chunks in a very distinctive broth. It's warming enough to serve in the colder seasons, yet light enough to have as a nice meal in the spring time.

Vietnamese Beef Pho
Preparation time: 20 min
Cooking time: 3 hrs

Ingredients:
Few pounds of large beef bones cut 3-4 inches in length. Ox tails work well because they contain both meat and marrow. *A reader also recommended fillet mignon (read at bottom of post).
2 packages of Vietnamese Pho rice noodles (see picture)
1 large package of frozen Asian meatballs (~20)
1 large Daikon radish
3-4 whole star anise
3 large white onions
Salt
Green onions, finely chopped [optional]
Cilantro [optional]

Dipping sauce for meats:
Hoisin sauce
1 lemon
Chili paste

Serves 4-6

STEP 1 - Clean the bones
Rinse the bones in cold water. Place in a large pot with enough water to cover the bones. Bring to a boil; then pour out the boiling water. Give the bones another quick rinse under the tap; then fill the pot with enough water for your soup. Heat to a boil. This is a traditional Asian step for making soup from bones, and will yield a clearer broth.

STEP 2 - Make the broth
Peel onions, leave whole, and slice of tips. Peel the Daikon radish, cut into 3 pieces. While the beef broth is coming to a boil, heat up a heavy duty frying pan. Sear the flat sides of the onion and the anise (not the radish). This will bring out some of the flavor in the broth.

Once seared, place all three into the broth.

Daikon radish is pungent, yet delicious.

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Anise is good.

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Ready to be seared.

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When nicely seared, place the radish, anise, and onion in the broth.

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STEP 3 - Watch and wait
Once the broth comes to boil, reduce it to a simmer, cover (partially if necessary) and let sit for 2.5 hours.

Meanwhile, you can pre-cook the noodles according the package directions, the idea being to laddle the Pho broth over cooked noodles.

Vietnamese rice noodles. Go for the thin ones and follow package instructions. [Hint: the microwave is great for cooking them up once they've been softened in hot water]

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STEP 4 - Flavor Step
Once the broth has simmered for 2.5 hours, add the meatballs and let them cook for the remaining 30 min. Before serving, enhance the broth with a liberal amount of salt.

The Pho broth after 2.5 hours of simmering. Now would be a good time to add the meatballs.

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STEP 5 - Serving
Place a serving of cooked noodles into a bowl. If noodles have gone cold, you can heat them up in the microwave or briefly dunk them in boiling water. Ladle the broth and meatballs onto cooked noodles. Place one ox tail (2 if they're small) in the soup bowl. Take out the Daikon radish chunks, and slice into 1/2 inch disks. Place one or two pieces in the noodle bowl.

*Note that you can always make the ox tail and radish optional by serving them on a plate in the middle of the table.

Garnish with fresh cilantro and green onions. Serve with the dipping sauce for meats [see below for instructions].

Homemade Pho with Ox Tail

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Preparing a dipping sauce for the meatballs and ox tail. This sweet-sour-spicy dipping sauce consists of hoisin sauce, chili paste, and fresh lemon juice.

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VARIATION - Phollet Mignon
This suggestion came from a reader, and I like it!

Hi Lexman. Read your Pho recipe today. Good stuff; I never thought of searing the anise and I always wondered why I couldn't get enough flavor out of it. A couple things: one, you don't mention basil at all in your recipe. To me, nothing makes a good bowl of pho than freshly torn Thai Basil. Also, try out this variation I came up with: Buy one fillet mignon of the highest quality and slice into pieces about 1/8" thick and 2"x2" or so. Sit them on top of your noodles and pour the boiling broth over top slowly. This method cooks the beef to a near-perfect medium temperature and I guarantee you will not eat a more tender, flavorful piece of meat ever. I call it "Pholet Mignon". Hope you like it!

Lee Iovino
Leesburg, VA

Steamed Chicken with Ginger-Scallion Garnish

This a very traditional Chinese dish and one of my absolute favorites. It's not uncommon to see this dish at banquets or a Chinese New Year celebration. Simple, yet flavorful. If you love ginger and onion, this dish is definitely for you.

Typically, they serve the chicken at room temperature, but I prefer it hot, right out of the steamer. Either way, it's a great spring time recipe. Traditionalists also steam an entire chicken whole. I've modified the recipe from my grandmother's version for bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts as a healthier and more wieldy option. Please also note that some restaurants enhance their ginger-scallion dip with MSG, which I personally find unecessary.

In fact, the beauty of this style of chicken is in its simplicity and in its use of pure ingredients. The ginger, scallion, and salt are really the only flavors applied to the chicken, and the steaming method allows the chicken to retain its nutrients and juiciness.

Steamed Chicken with Ginger-Scallion Garnish
Total Cooking time: 30 min
Serves 4-5 with other dishes

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts on the bone with the skin
2 large pieces of fresh ginger
2-3 stalks of scallion
Salt
Oil [Extra virgin olive oil for a healthy choice]
2-3 pieces of fresh garlic [optional]

Special Equipment:
Meat cleaver or a sharp knife [for cutting through bone]
Large steamer

STEP 1 - Get the Chicken Steaming
Get your steamer fully going. Rinse the chicken thoroughly under cold tap water. Pat dry and sprinkle with salt. Place the chicken breasts in the steamer, and steam for 25-30 minutes (until the juices run clear). You may also throw some stalks of scallion, cloves of garlic, or slices of ginger for extra infused flavor.

STEP 2 - Prepare the Ginger and Scallion
Peel the ginger [tip: use the edge of a spoon] and wash the scallions. Finely mince the ginger with a good knife.. Same with the scallions. Now, I've never used a food processor for this because I feel it make it too mushy and puree-like, which is not what we are going for, but if you are pressed for time, by all means...

You should aim for a ginger-scallion ration of about 60-30 or 60-40 if you are feeling oniony. Be sure to make enough of this mixture [imagine 1/2 a teaspoon of this stuff per bite of chicken]. Mix the ginger and scallion together in a bowl that can withstand hot oil. Sprinkle salt into the ginger-scallion mixture and mix well. The natural aroma of this combination is truly one of my favorites in all cuisine.

Now heat up a fair amount of oil in a pan or small pot so it just begins to smoke, but does not burn. This is important. The oil should be hot enough to make the ginger and scallion sizzle and cook.

Once the oil is heated, pour it slowly from the pan onto the ginger-scallion-salt mixture. Try to pour it all around the mixture, as this process cooks the ginger and scallion. You should hear a nice sizzle. Stir the mixture, taste, and add more salt if necessary. The salt should not overpower the ginger-scallion flavor. Set the garnish aside.

Inhale the freshness of ginger, scallion and olive oil.

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Step 3 - Prepare the Chicken
Once the chicken is finished steaming, transfer the chicken breasts to a cutting board. Using your cleaver, cut the meat across the grain into 3/4-1 inch pieces, keeping the bone and skin on each piece [see photo]. Arrange the pieces on a serving plate. Serve with the ginger-scallion garnish in a separate bowl. Recommended with white rice or jook.

A true family style chicken dish.

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