Bulgogi (Korean Barbecued Beef)

This spring season has just been kicking my bum and not only mines but my children as well. My children both have asthma and when allergy season strikes it strikes the entire household. My little one's had fallen ill due to allergies and breathing problems. I have been nursing them lying awake day and night making sure they are breathing and not out of their sight. They are both feeling much better now

Now its my turn. That's how it usually goes kids are healthy, send them to school, they catch something from other children, bring it home, mummy takes care of them and when all is well, I then start to feel unwell and I've caught the bug. It's a long journey for me back to my normal self since I am also dealing with my own lung issues. When you can't breath nothing else matters and it's the worst and most helpless feeling in the world. I nurse myself back to health. It's been a struggle to get anything cooking in the kitchen so we've relied on some ready made meals. Everyone in the house has been doing the best they can.

Anyway, I tried to recreate a recipe that we tried a while ago from a Korean restaurant called Bulgogi (Barbecued Beef). When my son first tried this dish he loved it and he's our picky one. My darling daughter's more adventurous with food so she's much easier to feed. Here's how our Bulgogi turned out.

Thank you for continuing to support my culinary adventure, visiting my blog and for leaving lovely comments... Puts a smile on my face : )

Ingredients

2 sirloin steak
2 cloves garlic minced
half an onion diced
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste
some coriander (cilantro)  leaves
2 tablespoon olive oil


Method

Slice the steak into small strips I just chopped mine up. Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and let the steak marinate for an hour cover it in cling film and leave in the fridge. I couldn't be bothered to wait for an hour so I didn't marinade. After I've created the marinade I mixed it into the steak and placed it on a frying pan with the olive oil over medium heat. I fried the steak until the meat has cooked and sauce have reduced. Ready to serve over rice.. : )

Meatzza Random Recipe Challenge

For this months Random Recipe Challenge Dom at Belleau Kitchen is celebrating his 3rd year of Random Recipe blog challenge. We're to choose a recipe book and open to a random page and create the dish from that page. My cookbook for this challenge is Nigellissima. I have been wating for this book for several months now since it had just been released a week ago in America. My random page happens to be a recipe called Meatzza and here it is..

 I made two pans..

My pans are 8 inches, about 3 inches smaller than what was suggested which was 11 inches so the meat was a lot thicker. I doubled up the recipe which made it even thicker.

After I've sliced it into portions the Meatzza resembled a Meatloaf because of its thickness had I used the correct size pan it would've been thinner for the meat to resemble as the crust. The way Nigella intended it to be. I did have the correct pan size I don't know why I didn't use it, just forgot about it. The ingredients are quite similar of a meatloaf. It tasted like it as well. The dish had mixed reviews from my judges and myself. There was a no, two yes, and one confused. I'll be making this again with the correct pan size, it should make a thinner minced meat crust to see if my "no and confused one" will change their mind and my yes's prefer it. : )

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef

3 tablespoons grated parmesan

3 tablespoons bread crumbs

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 eggs lightly beaten

1 clove garlic peeled

salt and pepper to taste

butter for greasing

1 x 14 ounce diced tomatoes/drained

1 teaspoon garlic flavoured olive oil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

4 ounces fresh mozzarella  (not buffalo) halved then sliced

few leaves fresh basil

Method

Preheat oven to 425F

In a large bowl using your hands, combine beef, Parmesan, bread crumbs parsley, and eggs. Grate in the garlic and add some salt and pepper. Do not over work it , just lightly mix together, or the meat will become compacted and dense.

Butter a shallow round baking pan of about 11 inches diameter and turn the meat into it, pressing the mixture lightly with your fingers to cover the bottom as if the seasoned ground meat were your pizza crust.

Make sure you've drained as much runny liquid as possible out of your can of diced tomatoes, then mix the tomato with the garlic flavoured oil, oregano, and some salt and pepper, and spread using a rubber spatula, lightly on top of the meat base. Arrange the mozzarella slices on top and then put in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let it sit for 5 minutes, then adorn with some basil leaves and bring it to the table before cutting into wedges, like pizza.

Beef Stroganoff

This is Sophie Grigson's Beef Stroganoff recipe that I've found her making on YouTube. There wasn't any  specific measurements for this dish so I've just copied and eye balled everything she did. This was the first dish I was able to cook in a long while since coming home from the hospital. I'm still on the road to recovery. I have only been making my Prosciutto Salad everyday for dinner.

Ingredients

Beef strips
half a small onion diced
olive oil
butter
package of sliced button mushrooms
sour cream
1 tablespoon flour
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Set pan to medium high heat. Pour some olive oil to cook the beef in. When beef is cooked, remove from the pan and place in to a bowl. Add some butter and cook the onion and mushrooms. Once the onion and mushroom are cooked and tender, add the beef back in to the pan. Add the flour and stir well, then add the sour cream and stir well. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve over pasta noodles or rice.

Beef Polska Kielbasa Omelette

Daughter's bff L spent the night here last night. The pair of them having such a fun time. My baby boy and Dudley joined in and hung out with them as well. It was nice, my hubs and I got to hang out and watch tv shows peacefully.

I was the first one awake this morning. Well,  I'm always the first one awake around here. Opened my fridge and I found some chopped red onions, beef polska kielbasa, a block of sharp cheddar cheese, eggs, and milk. I came up with an omelette.

This is hubs plate with hot sauce on the side.

Ingredients

8 large eggs

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup whole milk

1/2 lb beef polska kielbasa  (which is half of the entire sausage) diced

Method

Crack the eggs open in a bowl, add the milk and whisk together. Set aside.

Set stove top to medium high heat. Bung in the kielbasa and when it starts to sizzle turn the heat down to medium. When it starts to brown add in the onions and stir. Once the onion is translucent add the eggs then add the cheese. Let it fry and when the bottom of the egg is cooked  start turning it over in sections because I had them cooking in a large pan. It's not your traditional perfect crescent shaped omelette but it'll do for us. When it turns golden and all of the runny egg have been cooked it's ready to serve.

Serves 5

Semi-homemade Beef Stew

The weather outside today is 59 degrees and cloudy. I'm grateful for the weather because it's the perfect day to eat some comfort food. Today's lunch is semi-home made beef stew. I call it semi-homemade  because I've used a packet to add seasoning.

All ingredients you will need and method can be found written on the back of the package.

Ingredients

1 package of McCormick Seasoning Mix

2 lbs. stew beef, cut into cubes

3 tbs. flour

2 tbs. olive oil

3 cups water

2 potatoes cut in cubes

2 carrots diced

1/2 of medium onion diced

Method

Coat beef with flour. Heat oil on large deep skillet or Dutch oven on medium heat. Add beef cook until browned on all sides.

Stir in seasoning mix and water.

Bring to a boil, cover. Add vegetables and simmer to low heat. I've simmered for 2 hours because I like the beef tender. Stir occasionally. Thicken stew with additional flour, if desired.