Ground Beef Fried Rice

The past two days has been an emotional roller coaster...it is that time of the year so it should be understandable...

I cooked some fried rice with ground beef, corn, and peas. It is a simple recipe which was even made simpler because I used ingredients that are already cooked. I cooked the ground beef, corn, and peas the night before. It is actually a complete dish which I just added to the fried rice. The result is a complete, easy to make, one-bowl dish that taste really good.

Fried rice is actually an easy dish to make because there is no limit to what one can add to the dish. It can be served as a side dish or a main course depending on the ingredients that has been added into the dish. The seasoning can vary as well. It can just be seasoned with salt or whatever seasoning that you prefer. I prefer to add soy sauce on mine because that is what I have been accustomed to :) The most important thing with fried rice, in my opinion, is using day old steamed rice or rice that was cooked the day before. It is a little drier than freshly steamed rice which makes it perfect for the recipe.


Ingredients

1 cup Sauteed Beef with Corn and Peas (recipe here; just substitute ground beef for ground pork)
3 cups (day old) steamed rice
2 tsp soy sauce
1 shallot, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
1 Tbsp oil

1. Heat pan over medium heat. Add oil then saute shallot and garlic until translucent and fragrant.
2. Add rice and stir fry until warmed through.
3. Add prepared sauteed beef with corn and peas. Mix well and continue to cook. Make sure you stir the rice frequently to prevent burning the bottom.
4. Add soy sauce and mix well. Season with salt and pepper according to taste.
5. Cook for another 4-5 minutes then remove from heat and serve warm.

Green Papaya Salad with Beef Jerky (Goi Du Du Bo Kho)

I remember eating a Vietnamese salad a while back and it tasted really good so I wanted to recreate it at home. I adapted this recipe from Viet World Kitchen but I modified it a little bit.

Papaya trees are abundant in the Philippines and usually used in several dishes such as atchara (pickles) or in a chicken stew. It can also be eaten raw both in its unripe or ripen stages. Unripe or underripe papaya can just be sliced and eaten with salt and vinegar while ripe papaya can be eaten by itself or grated then mixed with sugar and milk. Anyway you want to eat your papaya is fine as long as you add something to it. Eating papaya by itself can be a little bland unless it really ripe. There are varieties in the Philippines that are sweet when ripe and others that remains bland even when they are fully ripe. To me, the here is nothing compared to those foundin the Philippines but it could just be me and my preference :)

Anyways, this Vietnamese papaya salad is quite tasty thanks to the dressing which is a combination of sweet and spicy. I do think it is better to serve the dressing on the side so that each person can adjust it according to preference rather than dumping all the dressing on the entire salad. Plus, it makes it looks nicer too to serve the dressing and salad separately. I am not really a huge fan of the color of the dark soy because it looks too dark (to me) and makes the salad look unappetizing.

Dressing:
3 tablespoons regular (light) soy sauce
1 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoons sugar
1 or 2 Thai chillies, finely chopped (you can remove the seed if you prefer it less spicy)

Combine all ingredients and mix until sugar is dissolve. Set aside.

2 cups unripe papaya, peeled then julienned
1 teaspoons salt
4 ounces Asian-style beef jerky, julienned
a handful of basil,sliced thinly


1. Peel papaya, remove and discard seeds then julienne using a mandoline slicer. NOTE: Be careful not to cut your fingers.

2. Place papaya in a bowl then add salt. Let it stand for 15 minutes then squeeze as much of the fluid out. You can either do it by hand or use a cheese cloth to wring the fluids out. Discard any liquid.

3. Transfer to a clean bowl then fluff to loosen.

4. Add beef jerky and basil and toss lightly. Serve with dressing on the side.

Corned Beef Rolls

I have been on the roll(ha ha ha...pun intended) with baking these past few days. This is all thanks to the No-Knead Dough which allows me to make freshly baked breads without all the hard work. This time I filled the dough with sauteed corned beef and then bake it. Ah, I love the smell that permeates the whole house when the bread was done.



Ingredients:

No-Knead Dough (recipe here)
Egg Wash :
Egg yolk mixed with 1/2 tsp water

Filling:
1 can corned beef
1 small onion, finely diced
oil for sauteeing

1. Take out the prepared dough from the refrigerator and place on a lightly floured work surface. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for about 20-30 minutes.

2. Heat pan to medium heat. Add Oil and then sauteed the onion until transluscent. Add corned beef and sautee for about 3-4 minutes. Remove from hear and let it cool.

3. To assemble, pinch a golf ball sized dough and flatten to about an inch thick oblong shape. Place about 1 Tbsp of filling and roll. Make sure you seal the sedges to prevent your filling from oozing out.




4. After you have finished filling the dough, cover it with plastic wrap. Let it rest for an hour. By the end of 1 hour, the size should have doubled.

5. 20 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 350F.

6. Brush the top of the crescents with egg wash prior to baking.

7. Bake for about 20 minutes or until it turns golden brown. Remove and let it cool on the wire rack.

Thai-style Rare Beef and Mango Salad

I made this dish a few months ago but was too lazy to take pictures and post the recipe. Today I had another opportunity to make this wonderful dish again and it is as lovely as I remembered it. The sweetness of the mango goes well with the taste of the soysauce-olive oil marinade that was used for the beef. The only problem with this dish is that I made too much but could not stop eating...hehehe. This dish is based on a recipe in Jenny White's Three Ingredients Cookbook.


Ingredients:

1 lb sirloin (I used t-bone since that is only one that I had)
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 mangoes, pitted and sliced thinly
3 Tbsp extra virging olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp of freshly ground black pepper


1.In a shallow dish, mix soy sauce, olive oil, and garlic. Add beef and coat both sides with marinade well. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

NOTE: The recipe calls for garlic-infused olive oil which I did not have so I just used garlic and added it to the marinade

2. Heat griddle pan until very hot. Grill steak for 3-4 minutes on each side.
NOTE: I used my trusted Calphalon iron griddle pan


3. Remove steak from heat and set aside to cool for about 5 minutes.

4. Pour marinade into the pan and simmer for a few seconds. Remove from heat and strain to remove garlic pieces.

5. Slice steak thinly.

6. In a serving dish, arrange steak and mango and drizzle with pan juices.

Nilagang Baka ( Beef Stew with veggies)

** my version of nilagang baka.

Ingr:

2 lbs beef sirloin, cut into big chunks
4 small potatoes, peeled and cut into same size as beef
4 or 5 pechay ( bokchoy)
1 small head of cabbage, quartered
1 medium onion, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp dashida ***
2 corn, cut into 2 inch
salt and pepper to taste
2 korean chili peppers or jalapeno pepper




1. Put beef in a pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil for 5-10 minutes then drain and rinse in cold water to get rid of scum and blood.

2. Heat some oil in a clean pan. Saute onions and garlic until transparent then add beef and saute for 1-2 minutes.

3. Add water, dashida, fish sauceand simmer until beef is tender over medium to medium low heat.

4. Add corn , cook until tender. Add potatoes and continue to simmer until cooked.

5. Add cabbage the bokchoy and continue to simmer for 3-4 minutes until veggies are done. Do not overcook .

6. Add whole korean chili pepper then salt and pepper to taste.

7. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

*** dashida is a granulated Korean beef stock. It is optional but for me, it makes the stock a lot richer.

Kalbi Jjim ( Braised Short Ribs)

Ingr:

2 lbs beef short ribs, thick cuts
1 small onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp Mirin ( sweet seasoning)
3 Tbsp Kamjang ( korean soy sauce)
1 small carrot, peeled and sliced
1 small daikon ( radish), peeled and sliced
4 shitake mushroom, sliced
handful of chestnuts, peeled
1 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp corn syrup
pepper to taste





1. Put beef short ribs in a pot with water and boil for 5-10 minutes. Drain . Rinse short ribs in cold water to get rid of the scums and blood.

2. Put the beef short ribs in a clean pot . Add 2 cups of water, onion, garlic, sugar, kamjang, mirin, corn syrup, sesame oil and pepper. Boil over medium heat until beef is slightly tender.

3. Add carrots, daikon, mushroom, chestnuts then turn the heat donw to low . Simmer for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until almost all of the liquid has evaporated.

*** stir the mixture several times while cooking to make sure that the meat is coated with he sauce

4. remove from heat and transfer to a serving dish and serve.

*** make sure to cut the vegetable to about the same size to cook them evenly.

Kalbi Tang ( Beef Short Ribs Soup)

Ingr:

1 1/2 lb. thick beef short ribs, thick slices
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp Dashida ( granulated korean beef stock)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp kamjang ( korean soy sauce)
3 scallion, finely chopped
1 medium daikon ( radish), peeled and sliced
1 tsp sesame seeds
Dang Myun ( sweet Potato starch noodle) , optional





1. Rinse beef short ribs and put in a pot with water. Parboil for 10 minutes then drain and rinse in cold , running water

*** this is to get rid of the scum and blood
*** you may repeat the same process for a couple more times until you get rid of all the scum and blood

2. Return the ribs to the pot and add water. Add dashida, garlic ,a pinch of salt and pepper. Bring it to a boil over medium heat for about 2 hours or until the meat is very tender. Occassionally skim off fat that forms on the surface.

3. Add the radish to the pot and boil some more until radish is tender.

4. Add scallions, sesame oil and sesame seeds. Add more salt according to your taste. You may add Dang Myun ( Sweet Potato Starch noodle) if you want. Transfer to a bowl and garnish with eggs and scallions

*** If you want , you can refrigerate this dish after cooling and serve the following day.
*** after refrigerating, the fat congeals at the surface which makes it easier to remove and discard... then you can reheat your soup and serve.
*** If you are planning to serve your soup the next day, I'd skip adding the Dang Myun until you reheat the soup.

Kalbi ( Grilled Beef Short Ribs)

Ingr:

2 lbs sliced beef short ribs
1 cup korean soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 korean pear, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 Tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp ginger, finely chopped

1. In a food processor, puree onion and Korean pear. Transfer to a large bowl.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and mix well.

3. Marinate meat overnight.

4. Grill meat until done.

*** serve with rice and kimchi

Bulgogi

Ingredients:

1 lb beef, thinly sliced - I usually buy mine already sliced from the korean market
1/2 cup carrots, julienned
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
sesame oil

marinade:

1/2 cup Kamjang ( Korean Soy sauce)
5 Tbsp sugar
10 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
5 Tbsp Mirin ( sweet sake)
2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
5 scallions, sliced diagonally into 2 inches

1. mix all ingredients for marinade then add beef and marinate for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator.

2. heat sauce pan and add sesame oil. Keep the fire on medium and keep an eye on your pan since sesame oil tends to burn faster than vegetable oil. Add onion and saute until it turns transparent, remove from pan and set aside.

3. Turn the heat to medium high and saute marinated bulgogi until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the sauteed onions and carrots and cook for another 3 minutes.

4. remove from heat and serve.

*** bulgogi can also be grilled ( traditional way of cooking)

*** i love onions so i always put tons of onions on my bulgogi